It was a historic night at Providence as Guyana Amazon Warriors won the 2023 Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL) final with a 9 wicket win over the Trinbago Knight Riders, ensuring a maiden CPL title for the franchise.
It was the Amazon Warriors’ sixth trip to the final and this time they held their nerve to come out on top, dismissing TKR for 94 off 18.1 overs before reaching 99 for one with six overs to spare to seal a comprehensive victory.
There was an air of expectation around the ground with many expecting 2023 to be the year of the Amazon Warriors and hopes soared after Tahir won the toss and sent the visitors to bat first.
Seven times in ten finals teams chasing have come out on top and that formula held true again last night with TKR struggling to get going, slipping to 44 for five in the seventh over with big guns, captain Kieron Pollard, Nicholas Pooran, Andre Russell and Chadwick Walton, all falling cheaply on a night when they needed to deliver.
In the Warriors’ turn at the crease, when the final runs were scored by Saim Ayub, Tahir dropped to his knees in tears.
“This is a special feeling. A lot of people said a lot of negative things before this game and when I took the captaincy but I am a really proud man, proud father and a very proud captain,” Tahir said after the game.
“I wanted to give the boys and the nation this so I am very grateful to the Almighty,” he added.
Restricting the TKR batting was the first step for the Warriors and Dwaine Pretorius delivered with the ball, grabbing four wickets to lead the charge.
Walton opened the scoring for TKR with a four through the covers off Pretorius, while fellow opener Mark Deyal got into the act with a straight six off the South African bowler, followed by a cut for four.
But the early TKR burst was cut short with Deyal being bowled for 16 as TKR lost their first wicket with the score on 24 in the third over.
The visitors lost another wicket in the next over with Walton trapped lbw for ten by a delivery from Romario Shepherd that didn’t bounce as much as the batter would have anticipated.
At 29 for two, TKR’s leading batter Pooran had a lot of work to do but was unable to step up this time around, caught by Shepherd off Pretorius for one, before Gudakesh Motie’s double strike—with the scalps of the TKR skipper for a duck and Akeal Hosein for one—put the hosts in command.
Russell (3) was TKR’s last hope to get to a competitive score but he too failed to get going, skying a Tahir delivery to Pretorius as the visitors slipped to 49 for six in the tenth over.
It was all downhill after that with Keacy Carty’s 38 off 45 the only bright spot for the four-time champions with the bat.
The total was never really going to challenge the Warriors but TKR made a fist of it with Akeal Hosein removing Keemo Paul for 11 and mystery spinner Sunil Narine keeping things tight in the six-over powerplay, with Guyana progressing to 29 for one which was their lowest powerplay score of the season.
But TKR could not contain the leading batters in the tournament, Shai Hope and Saim Ayub, for long with the pair putting on an unbroken 84-run stand for the second wicket to seal the long-awaited triumph for the Guyana franchise.
Ayub was unbeaten on 52 off 41 balls while Hope ended on 32 not out of 32 balls to cap off a dominant performance in the final.
Summarised Scores:
TKR 94 (18.1 overs) (Keacy Carty 38; Dwaine Pretorius 4/26, Gudakesh Motie 2/7, Imran Tahir 2/8) vs GUYANA AMAZON WARRIORS 99-1 (14 overs (Saim Ayub 52 n.o., Shai Hope 32 n.o.)
Guyana Amazon Warriors win by nine wickets