BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE St. Kitts-Nevis Patriots have begun their 2017 Hero CPL campaign on a positive note as they came out victorious in two closely fought battles over last year’s finalist, the Guyana Amazon Warriors.
Playing their opening two games of the tournament in the United States, the Patriots have never defeated the Warriors, but their fortunes changed over the weekend.
On Saturday (Aug. 5), in sweltering heat, the Patriots downed the Warriors by three wickets at the Fort Lauderdale ground.
Winning the toss in a lunchtime game, the Patriots opted to bowl and restricted the strong Guyana line-up to a paltry 123 for 7.
In reply, the Patriots scraped home in a tough encounter ending on 124 for 6 with six balls remaining.
Chadwick Walton topped scored for the Warriors with a patient 60 from 51 balls, but that was upstaged by some powerful depth hitting by Patriots’ Carlos Brathwaite, who smacked 31 from 19 balls.
His inning comprised 3 sixes and two fours as he and Johnathan Carter (29) rescued the Patriots from the difficult position of 57 for 5.
In their return encounter yesterday, the Patriots completed the double when they eked out a four-run victory by stifling the Warriors with quality depth bowling.
Winning the toss, the Warrior decided to field and they restricted the Patriots to a below par 132 for 3 off their allotted 20 overs.
Captain Chris Gayle top scored an unbeaten 66 from 55 balls, blasting 2 sixes and 4 fours.
In reply, the Warriors could only muster 128 for 8 off the allotted overs.
Sheldon Cottrell was the pick of the Patriots’ bowlers, grabbing two for 28 from his four overs.
The Patriots now sit comfortably at the top of the points table.
They will be travelling to St. Lucia to battle the Stars on August 12 at the Darren Sammy National Stadium.
