BASSETERRE, St Kitts, CMC – Openers Evin Lewis and Devon Thomas lashed contrasting fifties in a century stand as St Kitts and Nevis Patriots romped to their second straight win with an eight-wicket thrashing of Guyana Amazon Warriors here yesterday.
Chasing 148 at Warner Park, the hosts raced to their target with seven balls remaining, to remain unbeaten while dealing Amazon Warriors their first defeat.
The left-handed Lewis hammered 62 from 39 balls with four fours and five sixes while Thomas stroked a measured unbeaten 55 from 54 deliveries with seven fours and a six, the pair posting 113 to erase any doubt over the result.
“I’m very happy. It was a great team effort. We know Guyana are one of the better teams in the tournament so it’s not easy going to bowl first,” said Patriots captain Dwayne Bravo.
“The sun is hot and I have to give credit to my entire bowling group. To restrict a very experienced batting lineup to [146] – we’ll take that any day.
“To Devon Thomas and Evin Lewis, chasing small totals on a tricky ground tends to be tricky but the way these guys batted, they literally batted Guyana out of the game so well done to [them].”
Choosing to bat, Amazon Warriors stumbled their way to 146 for eight, with opener Chandrapaul Hemraj top-scoring with 39 from 30 balls and Mohammad Hafeez getting 38 from 31 deliveries.
Left-arm pacer Dominic Drakes snatched three for 26 from his four overs, reducing the innings to 34 for three in the seventh over before the left-handed Hemraj put on 33 for the fourth wicket with Shimron Hetmyer (4).
When Hemraj holed out to long off leg-spinner Fawad Ahmed (2-33) in the 12th over, Hafeez struck a couple of fours and sixes and captain Nicholas Pooran, three sixes in a 10-ball 23 to rally the lower order.
“We definitely fell short with the bat [by] 15, 20 runs,” Pooran explained.
“It was a bit tricky this morning. We got the toss wrong. We thought the wicket was dry and spin a little bit more at the back end but we were definitely a couple runs short.”
Lewis and Thomas then gathered 42 runs in the first power-play to put Patriots on top, with Lewis scoring 30 during this stage before galloping to his half-century off 35 balls with the first of two sixes in the 13th over off fast bowler Nial Smith.
Thomas, meanwhile, started slowly, his first 11 runs requiring 24 deliveries but accelerated to reach his landmark off another 28 balls by hammering 21-year-old seamer Naveen-ul-Haq to the ropes at square leg at the end of the 18th over.
