GEORGETOWN, Guyana – Mohammad Nabi excelled with both bat and ball, with his performance guiding the unbeaten Guyana Amazon Warriors into the Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League playoffs following a comprehensive seven-wicket win over the St Kitts & Nevis Patriots here on Sunday.
Mohammad Nabi produced a brilliant all-around effort.Nabi ripped through the Patriots’ middle and lower order, with his four-wicket haul helping to skittle out the visitors for a paltry 128 in 19.2 overs after they surprisingly opted to bat first at Providence Stadium.
The Amazon Warriors then romped to their sixth straight victory, with Shai Hope anchoring the chase with an unbeaten 38, while Nabi scored 25 not out in their 132 for three in 18.3 overs.
With the result, the Amazon Warriors jumped to the top of the table with 12 points and are guaranteed to finish as one of the top four teams.
The Patriots still have an outside chance of qualifying but will need to win their final game and hope that other results go in their favour.
The visitors became the first team in this year’s CPL to choose to bat and looked to have made the right choice when Johnson Charles and Kyle Mayers gave them a blazing start by putting on 34 runs inside four overs.
But once medium pacer Romario Shepherd bowled Mayers for a quickfire 20 off 12 balls, things went downhill for the Patriots, with speedster Shamar Joseph dismissing Andre Fletcher for four and Shepherd also bowling Charles for 13 to reduce them to 39 for three.
Captain Jason Holder promoted himself up the order to five, but he scored just seven before he was caught on the midwicket boundary trying to hit Nabi out of the ground.
Nabi, who was predictably named Player-of-the-Match, then bowled Wanindu Hasaranga, who failed to connect with his reverse sweep, to put the Amazon Warriors in complete control at 64 for five at the end of the 11th over.
Alick Athanaze was the Patriots’ lone bright star, with his half century helping to prop up an otherwise below par batting performance.
He shared a partnership of 45 with Dasun Shanaka, who made a run-a-ball 20, to carry them past the 100 mark, but when Shepherd returned to snare the wicket of Shanaka, they lost their last five wickets for 18 runs.
Athanaze top scored with 52 off 39 balls. His knock contained four sixes and two fours.
Nabi was the pick of the bowlers with 4-17, while Shepherd claimed 3-16 and Joseph 2-22.
The Amazon Warriors were then given a superb start by Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Mavendra Dindyal to essentially seal the deal from the onset.
They shared on opening partnership of 58 in five and a half overs, with Gurbaz leading the charge, hitting five fours and two sixes in his 39 off 25 balls.
Hasaranga broke the stand by bowling Gurbaz and spinner Navin Bidaisee created a few nervous moments by dismissing Dindyal for 17 and Shimron Hetmyer for one, to leave the score 78 for three in the 11th over.
Hope and Nabi ensured there were no further losses during an unbroken partnership of 54 to see their side over the finish line.
