COMING off an unbeaten century in his last innings, Evin Lewis continued his sizzling hot form by scorching Guyana Amazon Warriors’ bowling unit during his unbeaten 77 off 39 balls as St Kitts and Nevis Patriots breezed past a target of 179 with 13 balls to spare in a seven-wicket win in the second CPL semi-final.
A first-time champion is guaranteed to be crowned today as Patriots will take on St Lucia Kings in the final; the ‘Kings’ finished as runner-up last year when they were known as Zouks.
Dwayne Bravo’s decision to bowl was justified by a superb collective bowling effort. At the halfway stage of the innings, the Warriors were in an excellent position at 88 for 2, with Nicholas Pooran having plundered 18 in the final over before the mid-innings drinks break off Chris Gayle’s part-time spin.
But two balls after play resumed, the first of many ‘dominos’ fell as Pooran pulled Dominic Drakes to Lewis on the leg-side boundary to be out for 26 off 14.
Wickets continued to tumble regularly thereafter as Warriors’ best partnership in the end wound up being the 33-run opening stand between Brandon King and Chandrapaul Hemraj.
Warriors’ struggles were best exemplified by Shoaib Malik, whose horror season came to a merciful end when he charged against Jon-Russ Jaggesar and was stumped for 6 off 10. The Pakistan overseas pro ended with 67 runs in 10 innings at an average of 7.44 and zero wickets with the ball.
Warriors looked like they may struggle to bat out their overs at one stage, slipping to 131 for 8 with 21 balls left before Shimron Hetmyer hit out with a series of sixes in his unbeaten 45 off 20 balls. Despite the late rally, Patriots’ start to the chase laid bare how poorly the Warriors top order had performed.
After a sedate start in the first three overs against off-spinner Kevin Sinclair in which Gayle crawled to 1 off 8 balls, Odean Smith was brought into the attack and bowled one of the fastest overs of the tournament, clocking over 150kmph at one stage. But the balls disappeared even faster to the boundary as Gayle smashed him for four fours and a six during a 23-run over. Imran Tahir took similar punishment in the next over from Gayle and by the end of the powerplay, Patriots had raced to 68 without loss.
Gayle fell in the eighth over to Sinclair for 42, mistiming a drive to long-on. But Lewis exacted revenge on the off-spinner by smoking a pair of straight drives for six and then a four over extra cover to bring up a 24-ball half-century in the 10th over as Patriots continued to stampede toward the target.
Smith struck twice in the space of three balls in the 16th over to break an 88-run stand between Lewis and Bravo, bowling the latter for 34, before Fabian Allen flicked a short ball straight to Hetmyer behind square on the ring for a duck.
But that just made the final margin look slightly more competitive in the end than it was for much of the match. Lewis clinched victory by slapping Hemraj over wide long-on for his third four to go along with eight sixes.
The final bowls off today at 10.00hrs.
(Cricinfo)
