LCPL cricket: Semi-final 1…Guyana Amazon Warriors melt T&T Red Steel in own their backyard, book final spot

Aug 23, 2013 Sports

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By Sean Devers
The atmosphere in Port- of-Spain last night was like a funeral instead of the usual Carnival as Guyana Amazon Warriors made the Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel fans see red.
A partisan capacity crowd of over 25,000 left the Queens Park Oval dejected and disappointed as the Amazon Warriors produced a professional performance to whip the Red Steel by seven wickets in the first Semi-final of the Limacol Caribbean Premier League T20 cricket tournament.

Guyana marched into tomorrow’s final, as T&T, urged on by a raucous crowd which created a sea of red in the stands, stumbled in their own backyard after the South American based team reached 107-3 off 16.2 overs replying to the 103 all out in 19.3 overs by the home team.
Man-of-the-match Tillakaratne Dilshan, with a cultured 39 from 27 balls decorated with three fours and a six, led the Guyana run chase after Krishmar Santokie, Dilshan, Lasith Malinga and Veersammy Permaul conspired to take two wickets each to shackle the home team batsmen.
Pep talks from West Indies batting Maestro Brian Lara and an impassioned flag-waving crowd, which danced to rhythms of Tassa Drummers, Steel pan players and the pulsating music blaring from the Trini Possie Stand, failed to produce the impetus to propel T&T into the finals after Guyana won the toss and elected to field first under lights.
T&T would have gotten some confidence from their win against Guyana when the teams last met at this venue and Kevin O’Brian got going with a boundary in the opening over from the tournament’s leading wicket-taker left-arm seamer Santokie.
Dilshan (2-14) struck in the second over when he removed O’Brian (8) to a sharp return catch to leave T&T on 11-1. It was soon 14-2 in the third over when Mahela Jayawardene (2) popped an easy catch to extra cover as the hosts slipped to 14-2 and the large Guyanese contingent in the crowd, which also included several Hollywood movie stars and former great West Indies players, went wild with delight.

‘Slinger’ Malinga was introduced in the fourth over and Sunil Narine in the next over as Skipper Ramnaresh Sarwan cleverly wrung the changers as Ross Taylor joined Adrian Barath.
Taylor (6) top-edged Permaul into ‘no man’s land’ before he pulled the left-arm spinner to deep mid wicket in the same over to leave T&T on 25-3 in the sixth over.
The left-handed Darren Bravo joined Barath on a track offering assistance to the spinners. The noisy crowd was stunned into silence when Barath (12) was run out at 32-4 and Bravo (3) fell off Dilshan without addition to the score in the ninth over.
Skipper Dwayne Bravo was joined by 17-year-old Nicholas Pooran, who scored 54 against Guyana on debut from 18 balls, and together they took the score to 56 before Pooran (14), who hit the first six of the match, edged a cut off Permaul, next ball.
Kevin Cooper, who clobbered Narine for two sixes and his Captain, who smashed a Santokie full toss to cover for only the second four of the innings, tried to orchestrate a mini-revival as they carried T&T to 101-7 before Cooper, who hammered 27 from 17 balls, lofted Narine to long-on in the 18th over.
After clarification from the third Umpire, Suleiman Benn was give out caught at point by Permaul for duck as Santokie took his 16th wicket in the competition as he finished another excellent spell to finish with 2-20 from his four overs.
It was 103-9 when Bravo (24) was taken on the cover boundary before Malinga, who ended with 2-18, finished the match on a hat-trick by bowling Fidel Edwards (1) first ball.
William Perkins, playing his first match in tournament, and fellow Trinidadian Lendl Simmons pounced on leg-spinner Samuel Badree, who opened the bowling, and smashed him for four.
Perkins climbed into the lively Edwards and swatted him for a boundary before Simmons (8) was beaten for pace and removed in the same over to leave Guyana on 14-1 in the third over.
Perkins, who sweetly cut Badree for four and Dilshan who played a ‘Dilscope’ for six off Edwards before gloriously stroking back-to-back fours off Benn, took the score to 47 before Benn got rid of Perkins in the sixth over.
Sarwan got the shock of his life when he tried to use the electronic bail to mark his guard and the bail started to light up when it was removed from the stumps.

However, the right-handed former West Indies Captain settled down to support Dilshan, who played an array of audacious shots, in their 31-run partnership before Sri Lankan Dilshan was caught and bowled by Cooper at 78-3 in the 11th over.
James Franklyn (16) and Sarwan (18) then saw Guyana home in emphatic fashion with 22 balls to spare.
Tonight, Jamaica led by Chris Gayle face-off with the Kieron Pollard led Barbados in the second semi-final to decide who will battle Guyana in the grand finale tomorrow.

 

 

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