PLAYING  any final give all players and teams’ special pride and a wonderful feeling of achieving something worthwhile in their careers.
But winning the top trophy or gold medal is the greatest sense of fulfilment and significant achievement. That’s the major goal of the Guyana Amazon Warriors franchise which has been brilliantly led by Guyana and West Indies

  Ramnaresh Sarwan.
They have achieved their first major goal of qualifying for the grand finale of the Limacol Caribbean Premier League which will be contested this evening at the famous Queen’s Park Oval from 22:00 hrs.
The Amazon Warriors registered a comprehensive seven-wicket win over home franchise, the Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel, at their home base on Thursday evening.
It was a result that left thousands of T&T Red Steel supporters despondent but on the contrary it would have gladdened the hearts of the thousands of Guyana Amazon Warriors supporters who were present at the QP Oval and those following the fortunes live on television coverage beamed on many channels in cricketing nations globally.
Sarwan’s astute captaincy and bowling changes played a key role in restricting the Red Steel to a gettable total of 103 all out in 19.3 overs.
And his bowlers Krishmar Santokie, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Lasith Malinga, Veerasammy Permaul and Sunil Narine created and sustained the pressure throughout except when Kevon Cooper slammed Narine for two huge sixes during the 45-run seventh partnership that revived their fortunes after they were facing great humiliation in front of their massive 15,000-odd supporters who turned out in full carnival regalia but more particularly in the red colour, symbolic of the prominent T&T national colour which has been worn by supporters for all major national teams, more particularly cricket and football.
The Red Steel was in serious strife when they were reduced to 32 for 5 after 8.1 overs. Their five frontline batsmen Kevin O’Brien (8), Adrian Barath (12), Mahela Jayawardene (2), Ross Taylor (6) and Darren Bravo (3) were all cooling their heels in the players’ dugout.
However, Dwayne Bravo (26 runs) survived a torrid time against “Slinga” Malinga whose toe-crunching yorkers had the Red Steel captain jamming down hard on the missiles which were directed on middle or leg stump, with no room or freedom to play attacking strokes.
Together with Cooper (27 runs) they added respectability to their total but it was totally inadequate for the determined Amazon Warriors who coasted to victory with solid contributions from Dilshan (39), William Perkins (18), James Franklin (16 not out) and skipper Sarwan (18 not out), who struck the winning run that triggered wild celebrations among their supporters at the Oval and way back home in Guyana where all Guyanese are now hoping that their franchise can go all the way and create history to become the first Limacol CPLT20 champion.
Sarwan has been part of two other Guyana history-making teams in 2006 and 2010. He successfully led the Guyana national team to win the first ever Stanford T20 crown in 2006 at the Stanford ground in Antigua where Narsingh Deonarine smashed the million-dollar six to give Guyana a momentous nerve-wracking victory over Trinidad and Tobago, with only one legitimate delivery to be bowled.
Then his Albion Sports Complex clubmate Jonathan Foo became an instant hero with a swashbuckling sensational innings that carried Guyana to its historic victory over Barbados in the first ever Caribbean T20 competition at the QP Oval.
Those two victories have set Sarwan apart from his other counterparts as a thinking captain whose decisions proved effective and brought special joy and happiness to his teammates and their ardent supporters.
He has found himself on the cusp of another historic moment in his illustrious career with the Guyana Amazon Warriors contesting the inaugural CPLT20 final. The big question is whether he and the Guyana franchise will also continue the historic trend set in 2006.
Based on their latest convincing victory over the Red Steel in the semi-final encounter last Thursday night , Sarwan is convinced that they are on the right track and in the positive mood to accomplish the ultimate goal of lifting the coveted Limacol CPLT20 trophy and US$350,000 winning cheque for the triumphant team.
He stressed that: “We are happy to qualify for the final. It’s an honour to play for the CPLT20 trophy. We are thinking positively about the game and we are confident that we can win the trophy. We have been concentrating on one game at a time and now it’s the final, we will give our best to win the match and win the trophy. That’s our goal going into the final.”
Commenting on their comfortable seven-wicket victory over the T&T Red Steel, Sarwan revealed that they “had a game plan and everything went as planned.”
“It was almost the perfect performance from everyone. We wanted to put them in to bat and put them under pressure because Kevin O’Brien has been playing a big part at the top of the order and getting them off to a fast start. With our bowling attack we had a good chance of getting him out and then grabbing another one or two (wickets), and we were able to achieve our goals”, added the smiling captain.
He added that: “All the bowlers stuck to their plan and they were well supported in the field. All the catches were taken and that created the pressure we wanted to put on the Red Steel team as they lost five wickets before the tenth over.
Apart from the wickets that they lost, we were able to restrict them to less than fifty runs at the halfway stage. That was a big plus for us and we were able to keep the pressure right through their innings.”
Looking ahead to the final after an intense training session at the Queen’s Park  Oval yesterday afternoon, Sarwan remains upbeat that the Guyana Amazon Warriors will do  everything in their powers to make their supporters happy.
He stated: “We have prepared well. Everyone is in high spirit and we are looking forward for outstanding performances from everyone. It’s the final and we have to lift our game higher because the other team in the final will also be coming hard at us. We don’t intend to lose so I expect everyone to give of their best to be victorious.”