Sunil Narine was outstanding with bat and ball as Trinbago Knight Riders defeated Guyana Amazon Warriors by four wickets in the opening match of the Hero Caribbean Premier League 2020.
Narine claimed 2-19 off four tidy overs to help limit Warriors to 144-5 in a game reduced to 17 overs after rain forced a delayed start. Opening the batting, Narine then blasted his second CPL fifty as Knight Riders won with two balls to spare.
Sent in to bat, Warriors lost opener Brandon King (0) and Chandrapaul Hemraj (3) cheaply, before Shimron Hetmyer and Ross Taylor repaired the innings with a half-century partnership.
However, once Taylor went for a breezy 33 off 21, Knight Riders pulled it back nicely at the back-end, despite Hetmyer batting through to end on 63* off 44 (2x4s, 2x6s).
Narine then launched into the Warriors attack, blazing to 50 off 28 balls (2x4s, 4x6s) and by the time he was dismissed in the 11th over, Knight Riders already had 100 runs on the board.
Darren Bravo chipped in with 30, and though the host franchise lost a few wickets late in the chase, the foundation set by Narine was strong enough to guarantee victory.
Naveen-ul-Haq took 2-21 and Imran Tahir 2-40. Warriors will be in action again tomorrow, this time against St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots from 17:30h.
