Nicholas Pooran smashed the first hundred of the 2020 Caribbean Premier League (CPL) and the third fastest in the tournament’s history at just 45 balls as the Guyana Amazon Warriors swept aside St Kitts & Nevis Patriots by seven wickets at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain on Sunday.
Amazon Warriors’ skipper Chris Green won the toss and opted to field. He bowled out opener Kieran Powell cheaply for two runs on the sixth ball of the match.
Kevin Sinclair got the second over on his senior T20 debut and went just for a single. Though Evin Lewis took Green for 10 off two balls, he chopped on to become Sinclair’s maiden wicket of his T20 career, the CPL press release said.
Ben Dunk kickstarted his innings with an edged four off Green, and Joshua da Silva was also busy at the crease. However, the two players could only manage three singles as Sinclair bowled a third over in a row as the the Patriots reached 33/2 at Powerplay.
Imran Tahir had alsmost stumped Da Silva, but a swept four by Dunk saw the over go for eight runs. Sinclair bowled out in one go, and with 17 dots and no boundaries it was a fine first T20 spell for him. Meanwhile, Tahir’s second over went for just three runs before Dunk (23-ball 19) lost patience against Green and was bowled to leave the Patriots 51/3 at the drinks break.
Ashmead Nedd was then introduced into the attack, and off the 25th ball he had faced Da Silva finally found four runs. Da Silva found the fence off Nedd again, and when Keemo Paul came on to break a run of 13 straight overs of spin the Patriots were 69/3.
Da Silva attacked Paul, hitting his first two career T20 sixes, the first a loft over the bowler’s head and the second a pull into the stands.
Da Silva drove Tahir, who for once went wicketless, over cover before bringing up his maidenT20 half-century off 42 balls on the first delivery from Naveen. He used Naveen’s pace to end the 17th over with back-to-back boundaries to help the Patriots reach 118/3. Romario Shepherd though broke the stand, bowling the impressive Da Silva with an excellent yorker.
Ramdin improvised to hit Paul for six, but Sohail Tanvir was caught napping and Paul ran him out. Shepherd began and ended the 20th with good yorkers, but in between Nedd didn’t even get a hand on a swirling Ramdin top edge and the Patriots keeper smashed a six to get the Patriots to their highest score of the ongoing T20 tournament.
Brandon King edged an Alzarri Joseph yorker past the stumps for four, but was fully in control of a cover drive in the same over. Opener Sinclair, was scratchy and he was dropped off by Tanvir off his own bowling and was lucky to survive a maiden from Imran Khan.
Sinclair was dismissed soon after for five runs after chipping softly back to the bowler Jon-Russ Jaggesar, who followed that up with the wicket of Shimron Hetmyer (1), who top-edged a cut to Ramdin.
After the Powerplay, the Amazon Warriors were 26/3 and in need of a partnership between Pooran and Taylor.
Pooran smashed two sixes over Jaggesar’s head and Taylor pulled a third hard and flat off Emrit, but at halfway the Amazon Warriors still needed over nine runs an over. Subsequently, Pooran hammered Imran for four then six over the off-side and closing with an enormous six over midwicket to take 18 off the 11th over.
Pooran didn't stop there and hit Jaggesar over long-off and sliced Joseph behind square to notch up his half-century off just 25 balls. The Amazon Warriors had surged to 99/3 off 13 overs and the run rate had reduced to under seven-and-a-half.
Ish Sodhi did well to only go for six off his first over, including two byes, and Emrit also went boundary-less. But Pooran made the equation far easier with a slog-sweep clean over the fence, his sixth maximum of the match as Sodhi conceded 11 runs off his second over.
Emrit then introduced Tanvir into the attack, but Pooran launched him over his head for a six to bring up the first hundred partnership by any team in Hero CPL 2020 and followed up with a fierce pull for four to leave the Amazon Warriors needing 16 off the last 18 balls.
Pooran sealed victory with 15 balls to spare and reached his century by hammering three sixes in a row off Sodhi.
Brief Scores: Guyana Amazon Warriors 153/3 (Pooran 100*, Taylor 25*, King 14; Jaggesar 2/33, Joseph 1/24) beat St Kitts & Nevis Patriots 150/5 (da Silva 59, Ramdin 37*, Dunk 19; Green 2/31, Sinclair 1/9, Shepherd 1/13) by 7 wickets
