The final leg of the Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL) tournament has bowled off in Guyana. The host team, the Guyana Amazon Warriors, wasted little time in booking their spot through to the qualifier on September 20, as they got an emphatic seven-wicket victory over the defending champions Jamaica Tallawahs at the Providence Stadium in Guyana on Wednesday night.
The Warriors’ huge win, which was inspired by Saim Ayub’s remarkable knock of 85 off 53 balls – his third straight CPL fifty – has set up a tantalising clash with four-time champions Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) in next Wednesday’s qualifier. The winner of that qualifier will advance to the CPL final on September 24.
Before they cast their eyes on the final though, this season’s two most dominant CPL teams will meet in a round-robin match on Saturday at Providence. At present, both TKR and the Warriors have amassed 13 points, with the latter heading the six-team table due to their superior net run rate. The Warriors have also played seven matches compared to TKR’s nine matches, and they have rattled off an impressive six-game winning streak.
Captain Kieron Pollard and his TKR team came out on the losing side in their first match vs the Warriors this season, as the Guyanese franchise got a comfortable six-wicket win over the hosts at the Queen’s Park Oval, St Clair on September 5. In that match, the 21-year-old Ayub, who made his T20 international debut for Pakistan in March 2023, scored his first of three CPL fifties – a match-winning knock of 62 off 43 balls. The stylish left-hander has looked at home in his maiden campaign with the Warriors, and his thumping innings of 85 pushed him to the top of CPL 2023’s scoring charts with 288 runs at an average of 48. In the process, Ayub surpassed the TKR pair of Martin Guptill (261 runs) and Nicholas Pooran (257 runs), as well as St Kitts and Nevis Patriots batsman Andre Fletcher (267 runs).
Since they were beaten by the Warriors, TKR have gone on a winning streak of their own, ending the Trinidad leg of the tournament with three comprehensive wins. On September 6, TKR defeated Barbados Royals by 42 runs at the Oval, stamping their authority over an opposition team they also hammered by a 133-run margin at Kensington Oval in Barbados the previous week. The in-form Pooran was the man of the moment for TKR in their second encounter vs the Royals, as he smashed an unbeaten score of 102 off just 53 balls with ten massive sixes. It was Pooran’s second CPL ton and the former West Indies skipper is expected to play a pivotal role if TKR are to get a fifth CPL title.
On September 9 and 10, TKR took their momentum to the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba, Trinidad, as they got seven-wicket victories versus the Tallawahs and the St Lucia Kings respectively. Both Guptill (53 not out) and Pooran (54) did the damage with the bat against the Tallawahs, while opening batsman Mark Deyal (57) got in on the act versus his former team, the Kings, registering his first CPL fifty with TKR.
In 2022, TKR finished bo
