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Afghanistan superstar, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, who topped the run-scoring charts in the recent ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in the USA and West Indies, continued his love affair with the Caribbean by smashing a 37-ball 69 at the top of the order for Guyana Amazon Warriors in the CPL. Gurbaz was in scintillating form, cracking four boundaries and six maximums, to royally entertain the crowd at Warner Park in St Kitts.
Joined midway through the innings by Shimron Hetmyer, the duo went on the rampage as they shared a 116-run partnership off just 47 balls for the third wicket to power the Warriors to a mammoth 266/7 - just one run shy of the all-time CPL record set by Trinbago Knight Riders in 2019. Hetmyer finished with a belligerent 91 off 39 balls, which included the unique distinction of 11 sixes and no boundaries.
The home team, St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, put up a brave chase but were ultimately undone by the evergreen Joburg Super Kings leg-spinner and Warriors captain Imran Tahir. The Patriots were on par with the massive asking rate throughout, until the 45-year-old’s intervention he ripped through the middle-order with figures of 3/48. Supported by Durban’s Super Giants’ all-rounder Dwaine Pretorius’ 2/46, they bowled out the Patriots for 226 with two overs still to spare.”
In the previous match, Pretorius’s DSG teammate Noor Ahmad spun a web around the Antigua and Barbuda Falcons’ batting line-up with a mesmerising haul of 3/18 for St Lucia Kings. The Falcons’ batting unit were perplexed with Noor’s mystery deliveries as they slumped to 142/7. The target was no match for the powerful Kings’, which was led by Joburg Super Kings captain Faf du Plessis’ 28 off 15 balls as the target was chased down with seven wickets and three overs to spare .
(With inputs from press release)
