St. Kitts & Nevis, Sep 2 (IANS): The hard-hitting 23-year-old southpaw, Sherfane Rutherford guided local side St. Kitts & Nevis to their fourth win in a row, while Guyana Amazon Warriors defeated Trinbago Knight Riders in the Super Over in the 2021 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL).
Rutherford played the starring role and ensured St Kitts & Nevis Patriots maintain their unbeaten start with a six-wicket victory over the Jamaica Tallawahs. Rutherford won the Man of the Match award for the third time in four matches and is the tournament's top scorer Rutherford.
Jamaica Tallawahs got off to a lightning start with the hard-hitting duo of Chadwick Walton and Kennar Lewis putting on a blistering partnership of 41 runs inside 3.3 overs. However, once Paul Van Meekeren dismissed Kennar Lewis that led to a change in fortunes.
Tallawahs then lost Walton to a hamstring injury after running a quick single. It took an enterprising counter-attack by Rovman Powell and Carlos Brathwaite towards the end of the innings to help Tallawahs to 166/8, a total that appeared under par for the track.
Patriots put in another dominant batting display. Evin Lewis provided fireworks for the Patriots. But the dismissal of Devon Thomas and Asif Ali followed by Lewis left the game hanging.
Patriots saw Evin Lewis bring the early fireworks, but the wickets of Devon Thomas and Asif Ali in quick succession followed by Evin Lewis left the game in the balance. Then Rutherford and Fabian Allen made light work of the equation with 55 runs from 20 balls to seal the win at a canter.
Meanwhile, in the earlier match, Guyana Amazon Warriors claimed a stunning Super Over victory over the Trinbago Knight Riders after both teams finished on exactly 138/9 from their 20 overs.
Sunil Narine bowled the Super Over for the Knight Riders and conceded just six runs. It was left to Romario Shepherd to bowl the Amazon Warriors' Super Over and he conceded just four runs to win the game for his team.
The Amazon Warriors got off to the perfect start with Lendl Simmons bowled by Chandrapaul Hemraj off the second ball of the innings. A 39-run stand between Narine and Tion Webster looked good till the latter was dismissed. After that Colin Munro (32) and Tim Seifert repaired the innings. A steady flow of TKR wickets prevented them from really getting going but a sprightly 21 from nine balls from Isuru Udana took them to 138/9.
The Amazon Warriors chase also started with early wickets with Ravi Rampaul dismissing Hemraj and Odean Smith from successive balls to leave them 7 for 2 in the second over.
Hafeez was dismissed by Khary Pierre for 16 from 30 balls to leave the Amazon Warriors needing 100 runs from nine overs. Pooran was dismissed with a superb one-hand catch by Akeal Hosein. Then Shepherd took over with the bat. But Amazon Warriors squeezed out the tie off the last ball before they claimed a win in the Super Over.
Brief scores:
Jamaica Tallawahs: 166/8 (Brathwaite 27, Walton 26; Bravo 3/25, Van Meekeren 2/27); St Kitts & Nevis Patriots 169/4 (Rutherford 50*, Lewis 39; Russell 1/31, Powell 1/34).
Guyana Amazon Warriors: 138/9 (Hetmyer 27, Pooran 27; Shepherd 18, Rampaul 4/29, S Narine 2/9); Trinbago Knight Riders 138/9 (Munro 32, Narine 21, Udana 21; Hafeez 3/18, Shepherd 3/24).