– Hetmyer, Rutherford seal Amazon Warriors second spot

THE Guyana Amazon Warriors won their final regular season match of the Hero CPL against Trinbago Knight Riders last evening by six wickets at the National Stadium, Providence.

The win took the Amazon Warriors to 12 points, equal with the Jamaica Tallawahs.

However, the Amazon Warriors cemented one of the top two spots based on a better Net Run Rate (NRR) than the Tallawahs.

The result means that the Amazon Warriors will play the Knight Riders, who finished on 14 points, and atop of the standings, in the first qualification playoff on Tuesday.

The winner of that game will move straight into the September 16 final.

The Tallawahs and St Kitts and Nevis Patriots will square off on Wednesday in the second playoff match.

However, it was Shimron Hetmyer and Sherfane Rutherford, who both scored at equally brisk pace, spearheading the run chase.

The 21-year-old Hetmyer bossed his way to a 30-ball 59, while Rutherford was also ruthless, joining the party and slamming a 13-ball unbeaten 45, to seal the deal for their team.

It all began in the 10th over of the chase, and thereafter, the pair plundered 79 runs in four overs.

It was a tricky run chase upfront for the Amazon Warriors. They had to overhaul the target of 155 in 15.3 overs to make the top two teams.

Cameron Delport started the fireworks, before Hetmyer and Rutherford took centre stage.

Rutherford hit a four and six sixes, while Hetmyer struck three fours and five sixes in their knock.

Earlier, the Amazon Warriors made three changes to the team with the inclusion of Rayad Emrit, Devendra Bishoo and Sherfane Rutherford, while for the visitors they rested Ali Khan and Sunil Narine.

However, the Amazon Warriors were more than competent in the bowling department and restricted their opponents to 154-7.

Asked to bat, Trinbago’s Darren Bravo and Denesh Ramdin made handy contributions, and were instrumental in taking them to a challenging total.

It was a pretty good bowling effort by the Amazon Warriors, especially by Emrit who hardly went for any runs in the final overs and got two crucial wickets as well.

The spinners didn’t pick up many wickets, but they choked the opposition with their wily bowling.

Imran Tahir and Chris Green conceded only 22 runs each, and that allowed them to restrict the table toppers to the total. The younger Bravo played a decent knock of an unbeaten 42 but it was the cameo by Kevon Cooper, 14-ball 30, with three fours and three sixes that helped the Knight Riders inch past that 150-run mark.

The visitors were restricted to 35-3 at the end of the power play overs.

Sohail Tanvir and Chris Green accounted for Colin Monroe and Colin Ingram, while Brandon McCullum was run out, but Ramdin and Darren Bravo unbeaten 42 off 43 balls, staged a recovery act.

Ramdin made a 31-ball 32 with four fours and a six in the partnership of 54 with Bravo.

Skipper Dwayne Bravo made 14, but it was a complete bowling effort from the hosts.

In the run chase, the Amazon Warriors were 67-2 from nine overs on the back of Cameron Delport’s 37 from 27.

They lost Luke Ronchi, bowled by Fawad Ahmed for one and Delport, caught and bowled by Kevin Kooper, but TKR and skipper Bravo had no answers to the assault meted out by Hetmyer and Rutherford.

They were clueless and tried every trick in the book, resulting in their six-match winning streak comes to a grinding halt.

Scorecard

Trinbago Knight Riders innings
C Munro c †Ronchi b Sohail Tanvir 6
B McCullum run out (Delport) 9
C Ingram c Mohammed b Green 4
D Ramdin † c Bishoo b Emrit 32
D Bravo not out 42
DJ Bravo (c) b Emrit 14
K Cooper c Hetmyer b Sohail Tanvir 30
A Phillip run out (Walton) 0
K Pierre not out 4
Extras: (lb 3, w 10) 13
Total: (20 Overs, RR: 7.7) 154/7
Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-19, 3-23, 4-77, 5-109, 6-146, 7-146
Bowling: Sohail Tanvir 4-0-36-2, C Green 4-0-22-1, Imran Tahir 4-0-22-0, R Emrit 4-0-25-2, D Bishoo 3-0-31-0, S Rutherford 1-0-15-0

Guyana Amazon Warriors innings
C Delport c & b Cooper 37
L Ronchi † b Fawad Ahmed 1
S Hetmyer b Fawad Ahmed 59
J Mohammed c DJ Bravo b Miller 5
S Rutherford not out 45
C Walton not out 6
Extras: lb 3, w 2) 5
Total: (14.1 Overs, RR: 11.15) 158/4
Fall of wickets: 1-20, 2-61, 3-86, 4-148
Bowling: K Pierre 3-0-17-0, A Phillip 2-0-28-0, Fawad Ahmed 3-0-20-2, DJ Bravo 2.1-0-40-0, K Cooper 2-0-25-1, N Miller 2-0-25-1