The second match of Caribbean Premier League (CPL) saw St Kitts & Nevis Patriots pitted against last season's runners-up - Guyana Amazon Warriors.
The Patriots won their first home game in three years in the competition opener the previous evening but were brought back down to earth with a bump as the Warriors completed an ice veined run chase to win by five wickets with 16 balls remaining.
The Warriors’ experienced skipper Imran Tahir won the toss with a bit of weather around in Basseterre and duly elected to bowl first. The Patriots made what seemed like a more than competitive total by posting 153/8 largely thanks to opener Andre Fletcher’s 60 off 41 deliveries.
However, the Warriors’ much vaunted batting card soon made light work of the total as Ben McDermott blitzed 75 off 39 balls at the top of the order, spanking ten fours and four sixes to get Guyana off to a flier.
They never looked in trouble as Shai Hope compiled a classy half century to guide the Warriors home with ease after the pair rattled along in a 114-run partnership that saw McDermott score his first CPL fifty on debut.
The fifth over of the run chase saw the key moment in the match as Naseem Shah failed to hold onto a chipped return catch from McDermott off his very first delivery when the opener was on 32 and had just plundered 19 runs off the previous over. The chance went down and the boundary peppering swiftly resumed.
The win gave Warriors their last fifth victory in a row over the Patriots and saw the 2023 champions get their 2025 CPL campaign off to an eye-catching start.
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McDermott was later named Player of the Match for his scintillating innings and the six time CPL finalists Guyana Amazon Warriors head straight to the top of the table after a dominant start to this year’s competition.