The Amazon Warriors completed a three-wicket win over St Lucia Zouks last evening in a nail biting affair. Chasing 112 with 20 overs to face, Warriors started the chase comfortably. After the first six overs, Lendl Simmons scored 25 off 20 (5×4), Assad Fudadin departed for a run-a-ball five then the skipper Denesh Ramdin joined Simmons at the crease.

The duo brought up the 50 off just 6.2 overs much to the pleasure of the Guyanese crowd which was not short of excited fans. Safe singles seemed to be the route the Warriors would take to chase the target down and it worked well for them, before Simmons 31 (27b 5×4 0x6) lofted one to the long on, down the throat of substitute Keddy Lesporis off the bowling of Keron Cottoy.
The departure of Brad Hodge for a duck then silenced the Warriors crowd. A pretty little partnership began to brew between Umar Akmal and Ramdin before the Pakistani was surprisingly given LBW off the bowling of Cottoy.
The departure of hometown hero Christopher Barnwell for 7 gave Cottoy his fourth wicket of the night and set the warriors on a downward spiral.
David Wiese came to the crease to try to bring it home but did not spend long either as he was run out for a duck. Sunil Narine followed soon after for 1 via the same route as Wiese.
Down to the wire was where the game headed as Veerasammy Permaul came out to join the captain in the middle.
Permaul, looking very mature in front of the home crowd settled the innings and brought the game home with a smashing six over midwicket which ignited the crowd.
Ramdin ended on 39 off 45 balls and Permaul 9 (10). The bowling figures saw Cotty end with with 4-0-18-4 and Johnson 2-1-10-1.
Earlier, Johnson Charles was the first wicket to go for the Zouks after he was bowled advancing to David Weise, while Andre Fletcher was the second to fall after he was caught lbw off the bowling of Narine with the score on 49.
Delorn Johnson looking to accelerate the scoring had a short stint at the crease, after being caught the very next ball at long off for a duck, leaving the St Lucia Franchise at 49-3.
Captain Kevin Pietersen who looked set with some classic flicks and cuts was given a lifeline in the fifth over after he was dropped by Umar Akmal at cover on 16.
He eventually had to depart after the first ball of the ninth over, struck lbw by Narine for 24. Kyle Mayers put the Zouks in even more trouble after he departed for 7 holding out to Devendra Bishoo off the bowling of Brad Hodge.
Ross Taylor and Henry Davids steadied the ship but found trouble accelerating in the ending stages. Taylor too held out to Bishoo at deep midwicket as he scored a composed run-a-ball 20. Nathan Mc Cullum had hopes of delivering but departed in two balls. Davids ended not out on 25 (34b 1X4) alongside Cotty 0 (1) as Narine ended with figures of 4-1-6-3 while Weise had 4-0-28-2, De Lange 3-0-28-1 and Hodge 1-0-1-9.
The Warriors spring into action again today against League leaders Barbados Tridents at 16:00 hrs at the same venue.

SCORECARD

St Lucia Zouks Innings

A Fletcher          lbw Narine                    15

J Charles            b Wiese                         11

KP Pietersen*    lbw Narine                    24

D Johnson          c de Lange b Narine       0

H Davids            not out                      25

K Mayers           c Bishoo b Hodge           7

R Taylor            c Bishoo b de Lange     20

N McCullum     c Ramdin b Wiese           1

K Cottoy          not out                                      0

Extras                                                              8

Total              (7 wickets; 20 overs)    111

DNB – F Edwards, S Gabriel

Bowling: V Permaul (4-0-19-0), M de Lange (3-0-28-1), D Wiese (4-0-25-2), S Narine (4-1-6-1), D Bishoo (4-0-19-0), B Hodge (1-0-9-1)

Guyana Amazon Warriors Innings

L Simmons       c Lesporis b Cottoy      31

A Fudadin         c Gabriel b Johnson       5

D Ramdin*      not out                                   39

B Hodge          c&b Cottoy                    0

U Akmal            lbw Cottoy                    7

C Barnwell        b Cottoy                        7

D Wiese           run out (Lesporis)         0

S Narine           run out (Charles)           1

V Permaul        not out                                     9

Extras                                                           13

Total              (7 wickets; 18 overs)  112

DNB – M de Lange, D Bishoo

Bowling: N McCullum (4-0-22-0), F Edward (4-0-30-0), D Johnson (2-1-10-1), Kyle Mayers (1-0-7-0), S Gabriel (2-0-11-0), K Cottoy (4-0-18-4), A Fletcher (1-0-10-0)

Results: Amazon Warriors won by 3 wickets

Toss – Warriors, who chose to field
Points – GAW 2, Zouks 0

By Stephan Sookram