Imran Tahir's Five-For Leads Guyana Amazon Warriors to Top Spot
Guyana Amazon Warriors did not just return to winning ways. They stamped themselves back on this Caribbean Premier League season with a ruthless, low-scoring dismantling of Saint Lucia Kings in Guyana, locking up top spot on the points table with a performance built on old-fashioned squeeze and one furious late assault.
At the heart of it all, a 45-year-old leg-spinner who still bowls – and celebrates – like a man half his age.
Tahir rips the Kings apart
Saint Lucia Kings chose to bat and, for a brief spell, it looked an inspired call. Kamil Pooran came out swinging. He lost Tim Seifert early, but refused to retreat, carving five fours and two sixes in a blistering Powerplay. With John Campbell settling in at the other end, the Kings strode to 51 for 1 after six overs, the pitch looking truer, the outfield fast, the Warriors a touch flat.
Then the game snapped.
Mehidy Hasan Miraz opened the door right after the Powerplay, removing Campbell and breaking a 40-run stand that had given the Kings a platform. That was all Tahir needed. Sensing weakness, he attacked the stumps, not the scoreboard.
Pooran, the man who had set the tone, was trapped lbw. Roston Chase followed in similar fashion within two overs. The innings, once fluent, suddenly felt frantic.
Mehidy returned to deepen the crisis, striking twice in the 11th over. Kemol Savory went. Charith Asalanka went. Both undone as the Warriors swarmed the middle overs, fielders closing in, every dot ball drawing louder roars from the Guyana crowd.
The Kings, once 51 for 1, were now unravelling in full view.
Tahir then went for the kill. McKenny Clarke, bowled. Matthew Forde, bowled. Stumps splayed, shoulders slumped. When he came back to trap Joshua Bishop lbw in the 14th over, the leg-spinner had five – a clinical, venomous spell that shredded the innings and left the Kings gasping at 81 for 9.
Only Obus Pienaar stood firm. His 35 was not pretty, but it was vital. He farmed the strike, took what he could, and with Maheesh Theekshana for company dragged the total to something resembling respectability. Their 38-run last-wicket stand frustrated the Warriors, nudging the Kings up to 119.
Fittingly, it ended with Tahir again in the thick of it, this time as catcher, as Pienaar holed out in the 19th over. The Kings were all out for 119, a total that looked light but not entirely harmless on a surface that had begun to grip.
A stuttering chase, then pure destruction
Chasing 120 should have been a stroll. It was anything but.
The Warriors crept through the Powerplay, not charged through it. Just 23 for 1 after six overs, only two boundaries on the board, and a crowd growing restless as the innings crawled rather than surged. The Kings’ bowlers stuck to their plans, found enough help from the pitch, and refused to gift momentum.
Mavendra Dindyal’s dismissal did not immediately spark panic, but it deepened the sense of drift. Glenn Phillips and Shai Hope chose caution over chaos, building a 53-run stand that soaked up 58 balls. It steadied the chase but never broke the game open. Every over that passed without a big shot gave the Kings a sliver of belief.
That belief swelled when the wickets finally came.
Three dismissals in three overs dragged Saint Lucia right back into it. The required runs were never mountainous, yet the rhythm of the chase had fractured. The Warriors, so dominant with the ball, suddenly looked vulnerable with the bat, the target shrinking on the board but growing in the mind.
Then Quentin Samspon walked in and tore up the script.
No sighters. No gentle easing in. He went straight to the aerial route and stayed there. Samspon unleashed a brutal, unbeaten 37 off just 11 balls, a barrage of five sixes that turned a jittery finish into a swaggering one. Length balls disappeared. Misjudged variations were launched over the ropes. The Kings, who had sniffed a miracle, watched it vanish into the night sky with every swing.
The chase ended with six wickets down, the scoreboard telling one story, the manner of victory another. Guyana had wobbled, then roared.
By the time Samspon’s onslaught was done and the Warriors crossed the line with four wickets to spare, the earlier tension had melted into celebration. Tahir’s five-for had set the stage. Samspon’s fury had closed the show.
Top of the table, back in rhythm, and armed with a bowling attack that can crush an innings in a handful of overs – the Warriors leave Guyana with more than just two points. They leave with the look of a side that knows exactly how dangerous it can be when its veterans and its hitters both catch fire.
