Guyana Amazon Warriors skipper Imran Tahir said batting failures were at the heart of his team’s loss in the 2024 Caribbean Premier League final against the St Lucia Kings.
The Kings won their maiden CPL title on Sunday, beating the Amazon Warriors by six wickets at Providence.
The defending champions were restricted to 138 for 8 in their 20 overs in the loss.
“We didn’t start well with the bat. We knew the dew was going to come. Tough luck today. I also want to congratulate the St Lucia Kings. It we batted better, we could have had 170 or 180. That is a good score on this pitch, especially with the spinners we have. Just one over took it away,” he said.
The Amazon Warriors lost their top order cheaply with Moeen Ali (14), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (0), Shai Hope (22) and Shimron Hetmyer (11) all going relatively cheaply.
They promoted Keemo Paul (12), Kevin Sinclair, and Raymond Reifer (13) before the big-hitting Romario Shepherd came in with 23 balls remaining.
Shepherd caned 19 not out off nine balls coming in at number eight, while Dwaine Pretorius hit 25 off 12 balls batting at number nine.
They smashed 37 runs in only 16 balls to lift the Amazon Warriors to 138.
“We like to keep Shepherd as late as we can. The other batters had a lot of dot balls. They didn’t try and rotate the strike,” Tahir said.
“I was happy with Sheppie, we needed him for the last four or five overs. Things were going well,” he said.
The Amazon Warriors won the title in 2023, beating the Trinbago Knight Riders in the final.
The loss against the Kings was the Amazon Warriors’ sixth loss in the CPL finals.