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An outstanding fifty from Lendl Simmons which transcended some difficult batting conditions took the Guyana Amazon Warriors to a 7 wicket victory over the Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel.
This match ends the league-stage of the 2015 CPL season and confirms the Amazon Warriors as finishing in Second while consigns the Red Steel to a third placed finish. Therefore, the Barbados Tridents advance straight to Sunday’s Final, while the Amazon Warriors go through to the Qualifier and the Red Steel must settle for a place in the Eliminator on Thursday against the Jamaica Tallawahs.
After winning the toss and electing to bat, the Red Steel were limited to just 117-8 in 20 overs as the Amazon Warriors made the most of a helpful bowling pitch, with all three of their spinners bowling economically and Merchant de Lange collecting four wickets. Simmons’ fifty guided what could’ve been a tough chase, expertly, to ensure the Amazon Warriors reached the total with — to spare.
Cameron Delport was the only Red Steel player who ever seemed at ease on a pitch which offered assistance for the spinners. His 44, which included six fours and a six, was the only substantial contribution of the innings. de Lange collected three wickets in his first two spells before the end of the ninth over. Combined with de Lange, Veerasammy Permaul, Devendra Bishoo and Sunil Narine choked the Red Steel in the middle-overs, who, have a hard-fought 22 from Johan Botha to thank that they got as many as they did.
Given the conditions, 118 seemed as if it was going to be a difficult chase. However, Simmons appeared to be batting on a different pitch as he crashed boundaries in the Powerplay to break the back of the chase early on and get the Amazon Warriors well ahead of the rate.
Simmons’ early aggression diluted the difficulty of the remaining run-chase for the Amazon Warriors and the Red Steel struggled to build pressure.
There was a glimmer of hope for them however, when they removed Assad Fudadin, who struggled for fluency alongside Simmons, and captain Denesh Ramdin, in quick succession. However, Simmons and the experience of Brad Hodge, who was dismissed just before the end, guided the Amazon Warriors to what was eventually a comfortable victory with 18 balls to spare.
