Latest update April 4th, 2025 6:13 AM
Hero CPL second semi-final… Red Steel qualifies for first final as uncertain Warriors go down by 6 wkts
By Sean Devers in Trinidad
In association with Bounty Supermarket,
Stag Beer, Leisure Inn, Noble House Seafoods
& Payless Varity Store.
A day after three criminals escaped from the Prison in Port-of-Spain resulting in one of them and a Police Office being fatally shot, the Guyana Amazon Warriors could not escape a sound trashing at the hands of the T&T Red Steel in the second semi-final of the Hero CPL t20 cricket tournament last night at the Queens Park Oval as the home Franchise advanced to tonight’s final for the first time.
The Red Steel will now meet defending champions Barbados Tridents in the grand finale of the biggest party in sport in the party Capital of the World.
Red Steel were fantastic in the field, economic, effective, efficient at Queen’s Park Oval. (CPL)
At 87-7 many felt the Warriors looked dead and buried and in the end the sold out crowd were proven right as strange changes in the batting order and another inept performance with the bat, especially at the top, and questionable use of his bowlers by Denesh Ramdin, helped to orchestrate their own demise.
Despite a well constructed 64 from 51 balls with eight boundaries from Lendl Simmons, who was last out in the final over, nobody else offered support as the Warriors could only manage 108-9 as Skipper Dwayne Bravo (2-19) increased his lead to 28 wickets.
The Skipper was supported by left-arm spinner Suleiman Benn (2-24) and Samuel Badree (2-9 from 4 overs) for the Red Steel, who fed off the energy of the fans, raced to 109-4 with nine balls to spare to qualify for tonight’s final as Kamran Akmal (49) and Daren Bravo (22) played fluently Amazon Warriors won the toss and opted to bat in bright sunshine on a slow track with more bounce than the one at Providence and the Warriors, who made one change, bringing in Trevon Griffith for Assad Fudadin.
And they started badly when Griffith (5) pulled Kevon Cooper to deep mid-wicket to leave the score on 19-1 in the third over.
Lendl Simmons was the highlight of a difficult innings for the Warriors at Queen’s Park Oval. (CPL)
But Simmons who got to 1,000 runs in CPL cricket when he reached 35, got going with two glorious back-to-back boundaries off the first two balls of the match from Dwayne Bravo. He got a couple of inside edges for boundaries, fought well and along with the Warriors leading run scorer Brad Hodge tried in vain to spark a recovery which did not happen.
Ramdin (6) was caught and bowled by Sulieman Benn at 50-2, Hodge (4) was removed by Badree in the ninth over at 53-3, while Sunil Narine, shockingly sent out at number four, was clean bowled for a duck without addition to the score as the capacity crowd which created a sea of Red, went wild with joy and danced to steel pan, Tassa drumming and pulsating Soca music coming from the Trini Possie Stand.
Umar Akmal also fell for a duck one run later when he was taken by Kallis at slip off Benn, while Chris Barnwell (12) who continued to bat too late, was run out at 72-6 just when he seemed to be gaining in confidence.
Things got progressively worse as David Weise (5) was caught and bowled at 78-7 by Bravo, who also removed Permaul (1) at 101-8 in the 17th over.
When Simmons, who reached his 50 from 41 balls, was run out after reaching the boundary eight times it was always going to be a tough task to defend such a small total.
The Red Steel batsmen adjusted well to a surface which made playing through the line problematic and after losing Cameron Delport (3) to Permaul at 7-1, Jacques Kallis (8) was taken at point in the 7th over and first bowled by Devendra Bishoo to leave the hosts on 48-2.
Kamran Akmal and Daren Bravo took the score to 85 before Bravo who hit a 17-ball 22 with two sixes and two fours was caught in the deep off Merchant DeLange who made the left-hander look uncomfortable to the shorts balls on the placid track to leave the score on 78-3.
Akmal, who faced 41 balls and hit seven fours and a six in his cultured 49, was bowled by Narine at 85-4 but Dwayne Bravo and Jason Mohamed, who was very lucky to be adjudged not out when a ball from Narine clearly hit his bat and was taken at slip, ensured the fans left the Oval a happy lot as the Umpiring in the 2015 CLP continued to be poor despite the selection of ‘overseas’ Umpires.
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