The Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) got underway Tuesday, but Guyana Amazon Warriors are not out of the blocks just yet as it regards to a victory.
They lost to arch-rivals Trinbago Knight Riders at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy by four wickets, mainly due to a Man-of-the Match performance by Sunil Narine.
In a rain-affected game reduced to 17 overs per side, Warriors managed 144-5 and Knight Riders overhauled the target with two balls to spare.
According to captain Chris Green, it is certainly not the start they wanted, but it is still early days in the tournament, and he expects them to go deep.
“Obviously the first game in the tournament and a first game in a long time, but we have a long way to go in this tournament and we got to start peaking towards that back-end and we look forward to our match tomorrow [Wednesday],” the skipper said at the post-match chat.
He added, “It is always going to be tough to match up with 11 (wins) in a row like last year, but disappointed not to get the right result today, but plenty of positives and plenty of room to grow as well.”
Warriors face St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots in their second match today at the aforementioned venue from 17:30h.
The expected rust after the long layoff from cricket showed, as the Warriors power-packed starters of 2019, slipped to 2-23 in four overs. However, Shimron Hetmyer and Ross Taylor produced a partnership of 50 in 26 balls, but another cluster of wickets allowed TKR to regain control.
“Given the start, losing those two wickets pretty early on, I thought Ross Taylor and Shimron Hetmyer batted pretty well to set up that innings for us and we thought that 140 would be good score, so to be pushing closer to 150, we were very happy with that total.”
Narine, who took 2-19, then cracked 50 from 28 balls, which was inclusive of four sixes, took the match away from the Warriors.
“We just spoke about holding our length, as we saw, Romario Shepherd, Naveen-ul-Haq and that was our successful length and when we strayed away we got hurt, but plenty of improvement and we are excited for tomorrow.”
Prior to Warriors clash with Patriots, Jamaica Tallawahs play St. Lucia Zouks from 10:00h.
