Guyana Amazon Warriors 161 for 4 (Mohammed 57*, Lynn 57, Reifer 2-22) beat Barbados Tridents 158 for 6 (Pollard 47, Taylor 37, Tanvir 2-24) by six wickets
Barbados Tridents will not be going back to the CPL finals for a third consecutive year after a six-wicket loss to Guyana Amazon Warriors in Florida. Tridents were eliminated from playoff contention as they lost their final league match of the 2016 season. Warriors, meanwhile, leaped past Jamaica Tallawahs into first place and guaranteed themselves at least two chances of making the CPL final for the third time, having moved four points clear of the third place St Lucia Zouks.
Chris Lynn and Jason Mohammed were the batting saviours for Warriors in a tricky chase of 159. Tridents got off to a great start when Dwayne Smith was bowled through the gate on the first ball of the chase by Raymon Reifer. Lynn took the wind out of Tridents’ sails almost immediately, hitting his third and fourth balls for four and six respectively over the off side. Lynn again found the off-side boundary on three consecutive balls to end the second over from Ravi Rampaul, putting a charge into a crowd that was heavily behind Warriors.
Captain Kieron Pollard went to spin starting with the third over and left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein and legspinner Imran Khan bowled brilliantly throughout the rest of the Powerplay to rein in Lynn and Nic Maddinson. Imran claimed Maddison to a mistimed slog well caught by a tumbling Ahmed Shehzad coming in from deep midwicket. After bolting to 27 for 1 in two overs, Warriors stood at 62 for 2 by the halfway stage, having failed to hit a boundary since the fifth over.
Lynn rectified that by targetting David Wiese in the 11th over, hitting a six over midwicket on the first ball and then once more over the sight screen later in the over. Mohammed, who was subdued at the opposite end on 9 off 16 balls till the 12th over, finally found his range against Marchant de Lange in the 13th, clubbing him for the first two of his five sixes.
Tridents began to roar back in the 15th over when Pollard took a good catch near the long-off boundary to claim Lynn for 57 off Reifer. In the following over, Pollard struck Anthony Bramble’s toe with a slower-ball yorker as the umpire sided with Pollard’s appeal to silence the crowd and the required rate inflated to 10 for the final four overs.
The pendulum swung back, however, as Mohammed slammed a ball on his legs deep over midwicket for six in the 18th over. Later in the over, Christopher Barnwell flicked a delivery just past short fine leg for a four and Warriors needed 16 from two overs. Mohammed’s fourth sixth came in the 19th over off Rampaul, over extra cover to bring up his half-century in 37 balls and he ended the match in style by smashing his fifth and final one over the leg side before charging down the pitch for a victory leap.
Despite fighting until the final over, the Tridents total always looked under par after Zouks had posted 206 for 3 earlier in the day. American Steven Taylor, who grew up in Miramar just 20 minutes away from the Central Broward Regional Park, looked at home playing inside his local stomping ground. Coming off a crisp 35 a day earlier playing for a CPL Invitational XI against a USA XI, Taylor was back in the Tridents line-up for the first time since July 16 and stroked 37 off 21 balls with seven fours.
Adam Zampa ended Taylor’s knock, inducing the left-hander to scoop a drive to long-off. Despite a good platform laid with a score of 50 for 1 in the eighth over, no other Tridents batsman could match Taylor’s scoring rate until Wiese appeared with three overs to go to make 13 off six balls. Pollard top-scored with 47 off 36 balls but he and Shoaib Malik fell on consecutive balls just when a late surge was required. In addition to Pollard, Sohail Tanvir claimed Nicholas Pooran in a clever spell at the end, ensuring the Warriors’ target would not be insurmountable.
