Local boy Hetmyer leads Warriors past Gayle’s Patriots
─ scored 79 runs off 45 balls
DPI, Guyana, Friday, August 10, 2018
A spectacular performance by Shimron Hetmyer led the Guyana Amazon Warriors past Chris Gayle’s St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots. Hetmyer scored a brilliant 79 runs not out, off 45 balls and was named Man of the Match. He smashed nine fours and four sixes in his innings in front of a capacity crowd at the National Stadium during the Warriors opening Caribbean Premier League match.
Hetmyer described his performance as his best innings in T20 cricket and was happy to do it in front of his home crowd. “It is great playing in front of my home crowd, I always love playing in Guyana, trying to make everyone proud of me and I hope I did that tonight” he stated.
Hetymer described fellow countryman Kemo Paul’s display during the match as fantastic. Paul, fresh off his Windies duties, delivered an outstanding bowling performance, picking up two wickets for a mere 16 runs off his allotted four overs. “That was fantastic for him coming down to the end and bowling a great last over, that was just a fantastic performance from him,” Hetmyer said.
The Warriors won the toss and sent the Patriots in to bat. They posted a score of 146 in their 20 overs after an onslaught by Gayle who scored a magnificent 86 runs off 65 balls.
What would seem like a mammoth task, based on the history of low scores posted at the National Stadium, was achieved in just 16.3 overs with six wickets in hand on the back of homeboy Hetmyer. The Warriors got off to a blistering start with Chadwick Walton hitting back to back boundaries in the first over only to lose the wicket of Luke Ronchi at the end of the first over for ‘duck’ (zero) after being bowled out by Sheldon Cottrell.
Walton would soon follow suit in the very next over for nine runs leaving the Warriors wounded with nine runs for the loss of two wickets. Captain Shoaib Malik followed making just 14 runs from nine balls before departing at the end of the third over.
It was the 62 runs and 58 runs partnership between Hetmyer and Jason Mohamed and Hetmyer and Chris Green that steadied the ship for the Warriors and saw them comfortably over the finish line.
Game summary: Guyana Amazon Warriors 148-4 from 16.3 overs (Shimron Hetmyer 79*, Chris Green 25*, Sandeep Lamichhane 2-12, Sheldon Cottrell 2-21) beat St. Kitts Patriots 146-5 from 20 overs (Chris Gayle 86, Keemo Paul 2-16).
The Warriors are slated to face the St. Lucia Stars on Saturday, August 11 from 16:00hours and Barbados Tridents the following day from 18:00hours.
By: Isaiah Braithwaite
Images: Keno George