The Seattle Orcas opened their 2023 Major League Cricket campaign with a five wicket win over the Washington Freedom at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas on Friday.
The Orcas restricted their opponents to 144-7 off 20 overs after winning the toss and electing to field.
Akeal Hosein led the way with the bat for the Freedom with an unbeaten 22-ball 33 including a four and a pair of sixes. Earlier, Andries Gous made 28 and Captain, Moises Henriques, made 24 against a pair of wickets, each, from Wayne Parnell and Harmeet Singh.
The Orcas then needed 19.4 overs to reach 148-5 and secure victory. Quinton De Kock led the way with 48 off 37 balls including three fours and as many sixes. All-rounder, Imad Wasim, finished unbeaten on 43 from 38 balls. Shimron Hetmyer contributed 23.
Power hitter Shimron Hetmyer and the stylish Shai Hope are among the nine players retained by the Guyana Amazon Warriors for the upcoming Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League season set to get underway in August.
Along with Hetmyer and Hope, the Amazon Warriors have also announced the retention of fast bowler Odean Smith, all-rounders Romario Shepherd an Keemo Paul, spinner Gudakesh Motie as well as Chandrapaul Hemraj, Matthew Nandu and Junior Sinclair.
The overseas players and draft picks will be announced during the Republic Bank CPL draft show which will be broadcast at the end of June.
The tournament gets underway on 16 August with the final taking place on 24 September. There will be matches in Barbados, Guyana, St Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia and Trinidad & Tobago.
Lead selector for the West Indies Men’s senior team, The Most Hon. Dr Desmond Haynes, says Shimron Hetmyer made himself available for the 2023 ICC ODI World Cup qualifiers in Zimbabwe but was not picked because team management wanted to stay with a team similar to the one that had success in South Africa in March.
The West Indies drew the ODI series 1-1 before enjoying a 2-1 victory in the T20s.
“Yes, Hetmyer was available. He did send through an email to Jimmy (Adams), our director of cricket, stating that he was available for the tour,” Haynes said.
“We have a new captain in Shai Hope and he was very happy to express his views about the type of camaraderie we had in the team in South Africa.
We as selectors saw some commitment and a real change in our approach to one-day cricket and we thought it’s only fair to stick with those guys at this time,” he added.
The left-hander, currently representing the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League (IPL), last represented the regional side in the ODI format in 2021 against Australia. His last T20I appearance for the Windies came in August last year against New Zealand.
Although initially selected for the T20 World Cup in Australia between October and November last year, he was replaced in the squad after failing to board a rescheduled flight to Australia.
Haynes, however, made it clear that this is by no means the end for Hetmyer or any player who wasn’t selected.
“I must say, though, that I want the public to know that nobody has been ruled out of selection for the West Indies. We do not have the depth of players to rule out anybody for selection,” Haynes added.
The West Indies will take on the UAE in three ODIs from June 5-9 before moving over to Zimbabwe for the World Cup qualifiers from June 18-July 9.
Royal Challengers Bangalore subjected Rajasthan Royals to a humiliating 112-run thrashing in Jaipur on Sunday, despite brief resistance from Shimron Hetmyer.
The Guyanese batsman made a 19-ball 35 that included a four and four sixes as he tried to get Royals back into the game after crashing to 31-6 after seven overs, chasing RCB’s 171-5. Former England captain Joe Root, who made 10 was the only other batter in double figures for Royals, who were skittled out for 59 in 10.3 overs.
Wayne Parnell was responsible for much of the destruction taking 3-10 from three overs. Michael Bracewell, 2-16, Karn Sharma 2-19 and Glen Maxwell 1-3 provided useful support in the rout.
Earlier, Maxwell scored 54 and Faf du Plessis 55 and Anuj Rawat provided the bulk of the scoring for RCB, who were recording their second win in their last five matches to be fifth in the league table.
Adam Zampa 2-25 and KM Asif 2-42 were the primary wicket-takers for Royals, who were losing their fourth in their last five matches.
Player of the match Carlos Brathwaite took three wickets and effected a runout while Shimron Hetmyer scored a quick-fire unbeaten 25 to help lead Gulf Giants to a seven-wicket victory over Desert Vipers and the 2023 ILT20 final in Dubai on Sunday.
The heroic Barbadian, whose four consecutive sixes off Ben Stokes won the 2016 ICC T20 World Cup for the West Indies, took 3-19 and ran out opener Rohan Mustafa for just six to restrict Desert Vipers to 146-8 from their 20 overs.
He removed the dangerous Alex Hales for one, took the catch to dismiss Adam Lyth for 13, dismissed Sam Billings for 31, breaking the 72-run fifth wicket partnership with Wanindu Hasaranga, whose 55 from 27 balls propped up Desert Vipers, before returning to take the wicket of Tom Curran in the 19th over.
Qias Ahmad supported Brathwaite with the wickets of Hasaranga and Luke Wood for three to finish with figures of 2-29. Chris Jordan caught and bowled the dangerous Colin Munro for just six.
Chasing 147 for victory, Gulf Giants’s Chris Lyn scored an unbeaten 72 from 50 balls and 30 from Gerhard Erasmus before Hetmyer arrived with the final dagger, smashing 25 not out from 13 balls with five fours to propel Gulf Giants to the title with eight balls to spare.
An aggressive half-century from Shimron Hetmyer helped propel Gulf Giants to a five-wicket victory over Desert Vipers in the ILT20 league in Dubai on Sunday.
Hetmyer scored 70 from just 35 balls as Gulf Giants scored 196-5 to win with three balls to spare. Despite the impressive knock from the Guyanese batsman, he did not do it alone as Chris Lynn was equally impressive scoring 71 from 42 balls in the winning effort.
Lynn and Hetmyer’s partnership of 117 from 56 balls helped get Gulf Giants’ chase back on track after they had lost Tom Banton, James Vince and Rehan Amhed for three, four and one, respectively, with only 30 runs on the board.
Hetmyer was eventually dismissed in the 14th over having hit five sixes and five fours. Lynn fell in the 17th leaving the dependable David Weise and Liam Dawson to take the Giants to victory.
Weise was unbeaten on 22 from 19 balls while Dawson was not out on 16 from just nine balls in the end.
Sheldon Cottrell was the best of the Vipers’ bowlers with 2-24 from his four overs.
Earlier, Vipers owed their challenging total to Alex Hales 99 from just 57 balls. He hit 10 fours and five sixes in his knock and got support from Colin Munro, who scored 39 from 23 balls and Sherfane Rutherford, who contributed 27 from 15 balls as Desert Vipers scored 195-4 from their allotment.
It proved to be a tough target but one that Hetmyer and Lynn were able to achieve.
Jamaica Scorpions captain Rovman Powell believes his unbeaten 105 against Guyana Harpy Eagles on Thursday night was one of the best he has played in his career.
Powell smashed seven fours and three sixes in a mature knock that steered the Scorpions to 322-7 in pursuit of the Harpy Eagles 318-9. It was the highest successful chase of the season and the best score by any team in the 2022 CG Insurance Super50 competition.
He shared in a crucial fourth-wicket partnership of 103 with Alwyn Williams who made 45 and then stands of 34 and 37 with Dennis Bulli (17) and Odean Smith (19), respectively before an unbroken 37-run eighth-wicket alliance with Jeavor Royal, who was on 18 at the end after hitting the match-winning six off Nail Smith.
In his post-match comments after his first List A century of the season and his fourth overall, the 29-year-old all-rounder rated his match-winning knock highly.
“I think it is one of my better 100s,” said Powell, who arrived at the crease with Jamaica 101-3 following the dismissal of Brandon King for a well-played 64.
“I got a very good start. It was a very good wicket to be honest and so once I paced the innings and stayed at the wicket we would win.”
He praised King for his half-century, his second of the season, that set up the victory for the Scorpions team that will face the star-studded defending champions Trinidad and Tobago Red Force in the final on Saturday.
“It was very important,” he said of King’s 64. “It was important that someone get us off to a flying start and I think Brandon did that. It was just unfortunate that he couldn’t go a little longer.
“We were looking to get to 100 in 15 or so overs for the middle order to settle in and push around the ball and I think Brandon’s innings really set that up nicely.”
Wary of the quality of their opponents in Saturday’s final, Powell said it was essential for the Scorpions to improve in all three areas – batting, bowling and fielding – if they are to have any chance of dethroning the Trinidadian unit.
“Trinidad plays the best 50-over cricket in the Caribbean for a while now so it’s important for us to play very good cricket and improve batting, bowling and fielding,” he said perhaps referring to King dropping Shimron Hetmyer early in his innings. The West Indies middle order batsman went into top score for the Harpy Eagles with 86.
“Today (Thursday) we dropped a few catches. In the final, we cannot drop Trinidad’s big players like that.”
Discarded West Indies batsman Shimron Hetmyer has been selected by defending champions Berbice for the 50-over Inter-County Championships set to bowl off on Monday.
Legendary West Indies fast bowler Curtly Ambrose has expressed surprise at the unusual circumstances that have led to the dropping of explosive batsman Shimron Hetmyer ahead of the team’s campaign for the upcoming T20 World Cup.
According to a release issued by Cricket West Indies (CWI), which roiled the cricketing world on Monday, the body opted to replace Hetmyer with Shamarh Brooks after the player missed a rescheduled flight, having been advised of the consequences of doing so.
The release stated that the player's original flight was changed from Saturday to Monday due to family reasons but did not mention if Hetmyer had given a reason for being unable to catch the second flight.
“I must say I am a bit surprised because who wouldn’t want to play in the World Cup tournament and who wouldn’t want to represent their country,” Ambrose told the Mason and Guest radio program.
“What I heard in the media is that he had some family issues. So, I take it that if you are going to miss playing for your country, or playing at the World Cup then he has some serious issues to deal with. I reckon that if that’s the case, you want to ensure that whatever issues he has with his family are being sorted, so he has to miss the World Cup. I wish him well.”
West Indies white-ball Captain Nicholas Pooran on Tuesday gave his first reaction to the absence of left-hander Shimron Hetmyer from the squad preparing for their series against Australia and the subsequent ICC T20 World Cup.
Hetmyer was originally named in the 15-man squad for the Australia series and the World Cup before being replaced by Shamarh Brooks on Monday.
The Guyanese batsman, who recently captained the Guyana Amazon Warriors to a playoff appearance in the Caribbean Premier League, was scheduled to travel to Australia to join the squad on Saturday before informing CWI that he would be unable to make the flight.
He was then rebooked for a flight on Monday before, once again, informing the CWI that he wouldn’t be able to make it. CWI’s selection panel then unanimously voted to replace him with Brooks. Before scheduling the Monday flight, he was informed that failure to make the flight would leave CWI no choice but to replace him in the squad.
“To be honest, that’s not my focus at the moment,” Pooran said in a press conference on Tuesday.
“The decision has been made, there are consequences for your actions. At the moment, I just want to focus on why we’re here and how we’re going to achieve our goals. Obviously, we planned with him but, unfortunately, he’s not here and we have to plan differently now,” he added.
“He’s definitely an experienced cricketer,” was Pooran’s reaction when Australian journalists questioned him about Hetmyer’s replacement in the squad, Shamarh Brooks.
“He’s been in our white-ball set up for the last year and has been doing fantastic. He had a really good CPL as well. He has a vital role to play for us,” he added.
Brooks is fresh off a fantastic CPL playoffs where he had scores of 47, 109* and 47 to help the Jamaica Tallawahs win their third CPL title.
Shamarh Brooks has replaced Shimron Hetmyer in the West Indies squad for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup in Australia, Cricket West Indies announced on Monday. CWI has advised the International Cricket Council (ICC) of the change after Hetmyer missed his re-scheduled flight to Australia.
The flight was rescheduled at the request of the player, who cited family reasons.
According to CWI, with flight availability a real challenge, a seat was found for him to leave Guyana today, Monday, October 3, meaning he would miss the first T20 International (T20I) against Australia on Wednesday, October 5 at the Metricon Stadium.
“This morning, Mr Hetmyer, informed the Director of Cricket that he would not be able to get to the airport in time for his flight this afternoon to New York,” CWI said.
“This afternoon we informed the CWI Board of Directors that the Selection Panel had unanimously decided to replace Shimron Hetmyer with Shamarh Brooks in our T20 World Cup squad,” said CWI Director of Cricket Jimmy Adams.
“ Whilst we changed Shimron’s flight from Saturday to Monday due to family reasons, it was made clear to him that if there were any further delays and issues with his travel to Australia then we would have no choice but to replace him in the squad, as we are not prepared to compromise the team’s ability to prepare for this extremely important global event.
“Shamarh has been a part of our recent T20 International squads and delivered strong performances in the latter stages of the recently concluded CPL. He will fly out as soon as possible this week to Australia and I wish him and all the squad all the very best for the tournament.”
Brooks has been in good form scoring an unbeaten 109 from 52 balls against the Guyana Amazon Warriors in the semi-final of the 2022 Hero CPL. He scored 47 from 33 in the finals to help the Jamaica Tallawahs win their third title and their first since 2016 on Friday, September 30.
The squad will now be: Nicholas Pooran (Captain), Rovman Powell (Vice-captain), Shamarh Brooks, Yannic Cariah, Johnson Charles, Sheldon Cottrell, Jason Holder, Akeal Hosein, Alzarri Joseph, Brandon King, Evin Lewis, Kyle Mayers, Obed McCoy, Raymon Reifer, Odean Smith
Barbados Royals captain Kyle Mayers and his Guyana Amazon Warriors counterpart Shimron Hetmyer both expressed confidence in their respective teams ahead of their clash in Qualifier 1 of the Caribbean Premier League in Guyana on Tuesday.
The Royals and Amazon Warriors finished first and second in the recently concluded league phase and will clash at Providence with the winner booking their spot in the final and the loser getting another chance in Qualifier 2 on Wednesday against the winner of the Eliminator between the St. Lucia Kings and the Jamaica Tallawahs.
The Royals have been in fine form, winning eight out of their ten matches in the league phase.
“Things have been great. Winning eight games out of ten, I think the boys have been playing some good cricket. We’re studying the game, very high-spirited and ready to go for tomorrow,” said Mayers in a pre-match press conference on Monday.
On the other hand, the Amazon Warriors had an abysmal start, winning just one of their first six matches before reeling off four straight wins after returning to Guyana.
“So far it’s been okay. The start wasn’t what we expected as a team but when we got back to Guyana, the guys spirits were much higher than I expected and they were ready to go, especially with the crowds. With the crowds here and knowing the conditions as much as we do, I think the guys are really up for the challenge. It’s just for us to continue,” Hetmyer said.
The Royals have lifted the CPL trophy on two occasions in 2014 and 2019 while the Amazon Warriors have never won it despite reaching five finals, something Hetmyer says is not on his team’s mind heading into the playoffs.
“Mentally, the guys are good. We can’t really think about what happened in the past because a lot of these guys were not here when we made it to the knockout rounds before. We just have to keep taking it one game at a time and focus as hard as we can on the game to come.”
The match will start at 9:00am Jamaican Time (10:00am ECT).
Guyana Amazon Warriors captain Shimron Hetmyer was full of praise for all-rounder Odean Smith who played a pivotal role for the team in a 12-run win over Jamaica Tallawahs in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) on Wednesday.
With the Warriors desperately needing a result, in their first match on home soil this season, Smith impacted the game decisively at both ends. Batting first, the Warriors found themselves in deep trouble at 98 for 7 before Smith bludgeoned 42 from 16 and shared in a seventh-wicket partnership of 74 from 27 with Keemo Paul to push the team to a respectable 178 for 8.
At the other end, on the back of a defiant 104 from Brandon King, the Tallawahs seemed poised for an unlikely victory, needing just 20 off the last over. King got things started off with a 6 but Smith shut the door, taking 2 wickets and effecting a runout for an overall 26 runs. He was named the man of the match.
“I actually had no idea we would have actually gotten that many I was actually thinking let’s get to 140, 150 and we’ll fight but as we saw today it was a fantastic innings from him (Smith), hats off to him,” Hetmyer said of Smith's contribution.
“He played one of the most special innings that I’ve had the pleasure of seeing and he’s one of those guys that anything can happen on a given day. He’s just one of those special guys.”
Trinbago Knight Riders ended their three-game losing streak and reignited their Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) campaign with an exciting win against the Guyana Amazon Warriors Wednesday night.
The Amazon Warriors won the toss and opted to field first and they produced a disciplined performance with the ball that kept the Knight Riders in check throughout.
Led by Tabraiz Shamsi’s 4-36, wickets were taken at regular intervals to ensure that no batter ever felt comfortable at the crease as the Knight Riders reached 150-8.
Needing 151 to win the Amazon Warriors got off to the worst possible start losing Paul Sterling for a duck and three wickets in total in the power play.
Shimron Hetmyer and Colin Ingram briefly threatened to take the game away from the Knight Riders but when Andre Russell removed Hetmyer the collapse began and the remaining Amazon Warriors batters fell for just 26 runs.
Earlier on the Knight Riders had constructed their best total of the Hero CPL campaign courtesy of a well-compiled 42 from Colin Munro. Overcoming the early loss of Tion Webster and Nicholas Pooran, Munro combined with Tim Siefert to compile a 51-run partnership that set a foundation for some late order risk taking.
Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard and Ravi Rampaul hit a combined five sixes to help the Knight Riders set a total of 150 runs that always appeared as if it would be tricky to chase.
This proved to be the case in the Amazon Warrior reply. No batter was able to face more than 20 deliveries despite reaching 81-4 in the 10th over. The Amazon Warriors lost their remaining six wickets for 43 runs to succumb to a heavy defeat.
The returning Akeal Hosein proved to be crucial in the Knight Riders' bowling attack taking 3-36 and he was ably supported by the parsimonious Andre Russell (3-16) and Sunil Narine (2-9).
Scores: Trinbago Knight Riders 150-8 (Munro 42, Seifert 27; Shamsi 4-36, Shepherd 3-22) beat Guyana Amazon Warriors 124 all out (Hemraj 28, Hetmyer 20; Russell 3-16, Hosein 3-36) by 26 runs
Guyana Amazon Warriors secured their first victory of the 2022 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) season with a win over Saint Lucia Kings by six wickets in front of a lively home crowd on Saturday.
The Guyana Amazon Warriors won the toss and chose to field, yet the Kings got off to a blistering start, racing to 77-0 in the powerplay before being held back by spinners Imran Tahir and Tabraiz Shamsi. The Kings finished on 161-7, with Johnson Charles batting throughout the whole innings and scoring a superb 87 off just 59 balls.
Despite losing early wicket, Guyana Amazon Warriors navigated their chase through Shimron Hetmyer and Heinrich Klaasen, who built a 66-run partnership. Klaasen would go on to score a sublime 61 from 46 balls to take Amazon Warriors to their first win of the season with ten balls to spare.
Saint Lucia Kings got off to a dream start, Charles combining with Faf du Plessis to reach 77-0 after six overs, the highest powerplay score of the season so far. Yet Shamsi and Tahir highlighted their quality by restricting runs and picking up wickets that held up scoring for the Kings. Tim David launched a late counter-attack, but it was Keemo Paul who shone with the ball in the final over, picking up two wickets and giving away just four runs, which saw the Kings end on 161-7 after 20 overs.
Guyana Amazon Warriors started their chase with intent, Chandrapaul Hemraj scoring five boundaries before being dismissed in the 4th over, with fellow opener Shai Hope being caught two balls later. Nevertheless, Hetmyer and Klaasen worked together to score runs and keep the Warriors close to their target. Despite Hetmyer losing his wicket, Klaasen would bat through to the end, and supported by Keemo Paul, managed to get his side across the line with ten balls remaining.
The win means Amazon Warriors have registered their first victory of the season, while Saint Lucia Kings have suffered their second successive loss.
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