Guyana Amazon Warriors have cemented their place in CPL 2016 playoffs after easing past the Barbados Tridents by six wickets in the first game of the US leg of the tournament. Dwayne Smith and Nic Maddinson stole the show with their bat at the Lauderhill facility on Thursday, as they orchestrated the run chase to perfection.
Warriors skipper Rayad Emrit won the toss and asked the Tridents to bat first. Yet again, Tridents openers Ahmed Shehzad and Kyle Hope could not get them off to a good start.
David Wiese and Shoaib Malik stepped up, however, adding some crucial runs to the scoreboard.
Malik (55 n.o., 44b, 3x4, 2x6) remained unbeaten till the end.
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No other batsman, after these two, though, could go past the double-figure-mark. Tridents crawled to a total of 142 for the loss of seven wickets at the end of their 20 overs.
Adam Zampa (3-0-11-1) was the pick of the bowlers for Guyana. Skipper Emrit and Sohail Tanvir picked up two wickets each.
Warriors got off to a flier with the help of Maddinson and Smith. Both batsmen took on the Tridents bowlers right from the start of the run chase. Halfway through the innings, they galloped to 90 for no loss.
Smith (50, 34b, 5x4, 3x6) and Maddinson (50, 41b, 6x4, 1x6) got out in quick succession right after reaching their half-centuries. Chris Lynn and Jason Mohammad also lost their wickets, but Tanvir and Chris Barnwell finished things off for the Warriors.
At the end, the Warriors reached the target with more than one over to spare and six wickets in hand.
After this defeat, the Tridents will have to win all their remaining matches in order to keep their hopes of making the playoffs of CPL 2016 alive. They are currently placed second-last in the points table.
