St. Lucia, Sep 11 (IANS): A lively home crowd carried Guyana Amazon Warriors to their first victory of the 2022 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) as they beat Saint Lucia Kings by six wickets. It was the second straight loss for St Lucia.

The Guyana Amazon Warriors won the toss and put their opposition in and the Kings got off to a blistering start, racing to 77-0 in the powerplay. Then the tide turned as spinners Imran Tahir and Tabraiz Shamsi. The Kings finished on 161 for seven with Johnson Charles batting through the innings and scoring a superb 87 off just 59 balls.

Saint Lucia Kings got off to a dream start, Charles combining with Faf du Plessis to reach 77-0 after six overs, the highest powerplay score of the season so far. Yet Shamsi and Tahir highlighted their quality by restricting runs and picking up wickets that held up scoring for the Kings. Tim David launched a late counter-attack, but it was Keemo Paul who shone with the ball in the final over, picking up two wickets and giving away just four runs, which saw the Kings ended on 161/7 after 20 overs.

Despite losing early wickets, Guyana Amazon Warriors navigated their chase through Shimron Hetmyer and Heinrich Klaasen, who built a 66-run partnership together for the fourth wicket. Klaasen went on to score a sublime 61 from 46 balls to take Amazon Warriors to their first win of the season with ten balls to spare. There was some concern when Chandrapaul Hemraj and Shai Hope left at the same score of 37 and then Colin Ingram left making it 46 for three in the seventh over. But Klaasen and Hetmeyer ensured there were no hiccups.

Brief scores: St Lucia 161/7 in 20 overs (Johnson Charles 87, Faf du Plessis 31, Tabraiz Shamsi 2/14, Keemo Paul 2/27) lost to Guyana Amazon Warriors 162/4 in 18.2 overs (Heinrich Klaasen 61 not out, Shimron Hetmeyer 32, Chandrapaul Hemraj 23, Keemo Paul 21 not out, Jeavor Royakl 2/17) by six wickets.