AMID a passionate and excited crowd, the Guyana Amazon Warriors prevailed in a low-scoring, nail-biting contest by three runs in match 4 of the Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL), against St Lucia Stars, last evening at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence.

In a dramatic finish, the game had all the ebbs and flows throughout and in the end the Stars could not prevent a miserable 13-match losing streak.

Chasing 141 for victory, the Stars ponder over the botched run-chase, and eventually reached 138-7, as the hosts’ pace and spin combination ensured the losing streak continued for the Stars.

Besides the bucketful of tricks that leg-spinner Imran Tahir possesses in his armoury in terms of his googlies, top-spinners and leg-breaks that had the Stars’ batsmen perplexed last night, with figures of 2-23, it was the medium pacers, Rayad Emrit (3-26), and Keemo Paul, who held their nerves together in the final two overs in the run chase.

With 23 required in the final two overs, Emrit took two wickets and gave away just seven runs before Paul took the wicket of Kavem Hodge and gave away just 13 runs in the final over to help three-time CPL finalists prevail in the end.

Stars’ chase gathered slow momentum for most of the innings. The openers failed to find a middle ground in orchestrating the chase as they vacillated between forward defence and scratchy slogs.

However, the Proteas leg-spinner removed both David Warner, who may have felt very unlucky, and Andre Fletcher in his first over, at 30-2 inside the seventh over. Warner made 11 off 21 balls, while Fletcher struggled to a 17-ball 14.

Lendl Simmons and Kieron Pollard then held the innings together with a crucial third-wicket stand as they added some 83 runs in 9.4 overs, at a run rate of 8.58.

Simmons, once a Warriors recruit, had struck five colossal sixes in his 39-ball 45 before he was dismissed in the 17th over, edging behind off Emrit.

At that point, the Stars had needed 29 runs off 21 balls, but lost a flurry of wickets, including Pollard (32) and Rahkeem Cornwall in the 19th over, which eventually shattered any hopes of a victory.

Having gone with an unchanged side, Chadwick Walton had given the Amazon Warriors the fillip early on, as they raced to a great start, but it was all spin after that quick start. 17-year-old Qais Ahmad pulled things back during his fine spell of 3-15 with support from Hodge and later by Cornwall.

The right-hander Walton took the fight to the opposition, outscoring his partner Luke Ronchi by some distance. The Jamaican peppered the boards with astonishing frequency from the word go, blasting four fours and a six in the first six overs. With Ronchi not hanging around either despite getting little of the strike, the 50 came up inside the Powerplay overs.

However, after being put down by Lendl Simmons on the long-off boundary, Walton was stumped soon after off leg-spinner Ahmad for a 24-ball 31.

Shimron Hetmyer, who has been in sublime touch, joined Ronchi, and began with some forceful blows, hitting Ahmad for his first of three boundaries before he decided to mete out special treatment to Kieron Pollard, with back-to-back boundaries in the ninth over.

The frustration of Pollard, Stars skipper, grew markedly by then, as he tried venting it out animatedly on Hetmyer.

Ronchi then greeted Kesrick Williams with a maximum down the ground. However, the Stars did well to pull things back with Ahmad managing to snare the wickets of Hetmyer and Shoaib Malik in a space of eleven balls.

Both batsmen were undone by ripping googlies, with the left-hander edged behind for 21, while the Pakistani was bowled through bat/pad.

Ronchi, laboured his way to 42, but he had become edgy towards the end. He completely missed an arm ball from Mark Chapman, but was unlucky to be dismissed lbw.

Sherfane Rutherford and Jason Mohammed struggled to apply the finishing touches.

The Warriors will face off with Barbados Tridents this evening from 18:00hrs.

GUYANA AMAZON WARRIORS innings
C. Walton stp. Fletcher b Qais Ahmad 31
L. Ronchi lbw b Chapman 42
S. Hetmyer c Fletcher b Qais Ahmad 21
Shoaib Malik b Qais Ahmad 8
J. Mohammed not out 20
S. Rutherford not out 16
Extras: (b-1, w-2) 3
Total: (four wkts, 20 overs) 141
Fall of wickets: 1-54, 2-86, 3-98, 4-113.
Bowling: Mohammad Sami 2-0-20-0, K. Hodge 4-0-24-0, M. McClenaghan 1-0-15-0, K. Pollard 2-0-14-0, Qais Ahmad 4-0-15-3, K. Williams 3-0-28-0, R. Cornwall 3-0-16-0, M. Chapman 1-0-8-1.
ST LUCIA STARS innings
A. Fletcher lbw b Imran Tahir 14
D. Warner lbw b Imran Tahir 11
L. Simmons c Ronchi b Emrit 45
K. Pollard (c) c Mohammed b Emrit 32
M. Chapman stp. Ronchi b Green 2
R. Cornwall b Emrit 3
K. Hodge b Paul 0
Qais Ahmad not out 9
M. McClenaghan not out 9
Extras: (nb-1, w-12) 13
Total: (seven wkts, 20 overs) 138
Fall of wickets: 1-29, 2-30, 3-113, 4-116, 5-120, 6-120, 7-126.
Bowling: Sohail Tanvir 4-0-19-0, C. Green 4-0-28-1, R. Emrit 4-0-26-3, Imran Tahir 4-0-23-2, K. Paul 4-0-42-1.