By Brandon Corlette
A magical last over from spinner Gudakesh Motie helped Guyana Amazon Warriors clinch a three-run win against Barbados Royals in match 23 of the 2023 Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL).
Motie defended six runs in the final over to help restrict Royals to 178-8 in 20 overs. Amazon Warriors had earlier posted 181-9 in their allotted 20 overs, with Saim Ayub and Shai Hope scoring half-centuries.
While 182 to win was always likely to be a tall order, the Royals did not help their assignment by losing both their openers inside the power-play. However, they reached the six-over mark at 54-2.
A 60-run partnership between Laurie Evans and Alick Athanaze was eventually bought to a close when Odean Smith got Evans to commit to a shot too early and Athanaze himself was to follow 12 balls later.
Just when it seemed the Royals were going to fall to defeat, Captain Rovman Powell blasted 39 from 19 balls to leave the equation at 31 runs needed from 19 balls.
Once Carlos Brathwaite and Justin Greaves had got the equation down to six off the final over, it looked a forgone conclusion, but the Warriors and Motie closed out a famous win for Warriors nation.
Earlier, the Guyana Amazon Warriors won the toss and elected to bat first. Chandrapaul Hemraj missed out while Junior Sinclair returned to the playing XI. Warriors experimented with Motie at the top of the order, but that did not last long. Motie made seven from eight balls and he departed at 9-1 in 1.3 overs.
Hope joined Ayub and the duo took Warriors to 41-1 after six overs. Hope was dropped on 15 by Obed McCoy off the bowling of Kyle Mayers, who bowled four overs on the trot for 24 runs.
Hope and Ayub rotated the strike with ease and grace, and took advantage of the poor deliveries with maximums. Despite the surface being on the slower side, Warriors stood firm at the half-way stage, scoring 83-1 after 10 overs.
Ayub then reached his second successive fifty of the season in 32 balls. Three balls later, Ayub offered a return catch to Brathwaite. The 21-year-old Pakistani opener had struck six maximums and one four in his 58 from 35 balls. Hope and Ayub had added 98 runs together, and Warriors were 107-2 in 11.4 overs when Azam Khan joined Hope at the crease.
One over later, Khan was caught for a four-ball duck, as Warriors were reduced to 109-3 in 12.5 overs. Hope and Shimron Hetmyer then took Qais Ahmad for 20 runs in one over, and the Barbadian Hope reached his fifty, his second in as many matches, in 39 balls.
He then chopped on and was removed by McCoy for an even 50 from 40 balls, an innings laced with four sixes and one four. Keemo Paul came to the crease with Warriors on 139-4 in 16.3 overs.
Brathwaite, who bowled expensively in Barbados and was dropped, returned with good skill this game, with 4-27 in his four overs. He sent back Hetmyer for 24, Romario Shepherd for 2 and Smith for a golden duck.
Paul tonked 23 from 10 balls, and Warriors ended on 181-9 in their 20 overs. The 2023 Republic Bank CPL will continue on Wednesday in Guyana, with Warriors taking on Jamaica Tallawahs at 19:00h at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence. (GTimes)