TAROUBA: Keemo Paul snared the first four-wicket haul of the tournament and Shimron Hetmyer smashed a 44-ball 71 as Guyana Amazon Warriors logged their first win of the Hero Caribbean Premier League, beating St Kitts & Nevis Patriots by three wickets in Tarouba, Trinidad and Tobago.
Hetmyer smacked three sixes and eight fours in his entertaining knock, helping his side chase down a modest target of 128.
Warriors won the toss and sent the Patriots to take the strike first. It was a shaky start though Evin Lewis (30) scored fast, including helping his team to 18 in Naveen ul Haq's second over.
But the introduction of Imran Tahir helped as he dismissed Chris Lynn (16).
Then some smart bowling by Chris Green and great wicket-keeping from Nicholas Pooran saw Lewis stumped for 30 and Patriots ended powerplay at 54/2.
Joshua Da Silva's exclusion seemed to hurt as his replacement Nick Kelly fell early to Keemo Paul when Hetmyer held a sharp chance. As Warriors bowled tightly not yielding any boundaries for 18 balls, Patriots were frustrated.
The pressure told, as first Denesh Ramdin was strangled down the leg-side off Paul and then Jahmar Hamilton fell to the googly from Tahir.
As Patriots reeled at 83 for 5, Ben Dunk (29) and captain Rayad Emrit (17) scored a few but boundaries were still hard to come by. The runs came slowly but wickets fell at regular intervals and Patriots ended their 20 overs for 127 for eight.
As the Warriors began their chase, last year's prolific scorer Brandon King began with a straight drive and square cut. But Sheldon Cottrell broke through dismissing King.
In came Hetmyer and he showed his class with a flurry of early boundaries, including a six that nearly took out the scoreboard.
Warriors cruised to 54/1 at the end of the Powerplay. Hemraj was run out in the eighth over failing to beat a powerful throw from Dominic Drakes but the chase was well under control.
Hetmyer was dropped by substitute Kieran Powell at cover, and Hetmyer celebrated with a straight hit for four the next ball.
For Patriots Rayad Emrit tried a fightback with two wickets in two balls including Pooran for a first-ball duck. Hetmyer was dismissed with a great catch by Dunk off Drakes, but the job was done safely with three overs and three wickets still left.
In another match, Jamaica Tallawahs defeated St Lucia Zouks by five wickets to start their CPL 2020 campaign on a winning note.
Jamaica Tallawahs first restricted St Lucia to 158 for seven after electing to field and then rode on Glenn Phillips (44) and Ais Ali's (47 not out) fine knocks to chase down the target comfortably with seven balls to spare.
Brief Scores:
*Guyana Amazon Warriors 131/7 (Hetmyer 71, Hemraj 19; Emrit 3/31, Cottrell 1/24, Drakes 1/28) beat St Kitts & Nevis Patriots 127/8 (Lewis 30, Dunk 29; Paul 4/19, Tahir 2/18, Green 1/24) by 3 wickets. Agencies