IT is said that when night falls, the stars come out to shine, and last night at Providence, the oldest star on the field shone the brightest as 47-year-old Imran Tahir captured 5-17 to lead the Guyana Amazon Warriors (GAWs) to a hard-fought four-wicket win over the St Lucia Kings.
Alongside debutant Mehidy Hasan Miraz (3-13), the spin pair befuddled the Kings, restricting them to an underwhelming 117 from 18.5 overs.
Warriors made the task of reaching the paltry total a difficult one and lost six wickets in the chase.
Glenn Phillips, back in the team, replacing Gurbaz, who, along with Nabi, have left for India, where the Afghanistan-India T20I series starts on Sunday, added 13 with Mavindra Dindyal before the latter fell for five.
Phillips made 37 with two fours and a six and, along with Hope (21), saw the fifty posted in the 12th over before Theekshana bowled Phillips at 66-2.
Chase dismissed Mehidy Hasan Miraz (1) at 69-4 and before Shimron Hetmyer (14) hit a huge six to get the large and raucous crowd going, he soon dashed their hopes when he was dismissed by Roston Chase at 98-5.
And when Romario Shepherd (1) fell to Matthew Forde with three runs to win in the penultimate over, the TKR supporters must have been hoping the Warriors would throw away a match that at the halfway stage was in the bag.
But Essequibian Quinten Sampson took the Warriors home with an unbeaten 37 from just 11 balls with five sixes, the last one to win the game.
His innings also included a four to the relief of a nervous crowd that left the stadium with smiles as broad as the Essequibo River. Chase had 3-34 in a losing effort.
Earlier, the Kings won the toss and elected to bat on a track with turn for the spinners and a fast outfield.
Dwaine Pretorius trapped Tim Seifert (4) at 14-1 before Kamil Pooran and John Campbell steadied the ship with sensible batting to post the 50 in 5.5 overs, before Mehidy Hasan Miraz removed Campbell (12) at 54-2 in the seventh over.
Skipper Tahir had Pooran LBW at 60-3 after reaching the boundary six times and clearing it twice in his 35-ball 43, and his demise triggered a dramatic collapse
The South African and CPL debutant Miraz joined forces to orchestrate an epic destruction, slicing through the King’s batting like a knife cutting butter.
Tahir had Chase (1) LBW before Miraz trapped Guyanese left-hander Kemol Savory (2) LBW in his first match of the season, five runs later, as the Kings slipped to 69-5 in the 11th over and another sold-out crowd roared its approval.
When Charith Asalanka (8) edged a catch to Wicket-Keeper Hope to give Miraz his third wicket, the Kings were 72-6.
Tahir removed McKenny Clarke and Forde for ducks, with two wickets tumbling at 73. Forde inexplicably played no shot to a googly and was bowled.
Tahir produced another googly which Joshua Bishop (5) totally misread and was LBW at 81-9.
The evergreen Tahir celebrated his fifth wicket with trademark arms outstretched and running towards his fans, who were having a ‘ball’ after the Warriors’ first loss in their seventh game on Tuesday night.
This was Tahir’s second five-wicket haul in CPL cricket. It is also the second-best this season, behind Jerimiah Louis’ 5-10 and ahead of Matthew Forde’s 5-23.
The dancing flag-waving fans were anticipating a double-digit total.
But with the spinners off, Obus Pienaar and Maheesh Theekshana had other ideas, adding 38 important runs in a frustrating last-wicket partnership.
Shepherd eventually removed Pienaar after he made 35 from 28 balls with four fours and a six. Theekshana was unbeaten on six.
The Warriors face TKR tomorrow night in the final home game before travelling to Barbados on Sunday.
