Guyana Amazon Warriors sealed a comprehensive win over Barbados Royals in their 2021 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) encounter thanks to a phenomenal 105* from Chandrapaul Hemraj.

Barbados Royals won the toss and captain Jason Holder chose to bat first, but his side was undone firstly by spin, as Imran Tahir took three early wickets, before a series of runouts and late wickets from Romario Shepherd restricted them to 130 all out.

The Warriors started off briskly, Hemraj dominating with the bat, putting on an opening partnership of 103 runs alongside Brandon King, before King fell to Nyeem Young. Shoaib Malik then came in to consolidate while Hemraj went in search of his century, reaching it with his fifth maximum of the day and sparking wild celebrations.

Barbados Royals had begun slowly as Shai Hope and Johnson Charles tried to build a platform, but veteran spinner Tahir sent the side into disarray with three quick wickets. Gudakesh Motie supported with some economical bowling, while Shepherd used pace to get the crucial wickets of Azam Khan and Holder. There were also three run-outs in the innings.

Amazon Warriors had a comfortable chase in the end, winning with over five overs to spare as Hemraj took the onus to pile on the runs, his partner King only facing six balls in the Powerplay.  Barbados Royal’s bowling attack had no answers for Hemraj; it was a quickfire innings; his maiden T20 century coming off 56 balls.

The win will no doubt be a confidence booster for the Amazon Warriors, who now have six points in the Hero CPL league standings. Barbados Royals remain bottom of the standings after this defeat.

Saint Lucia Kings earned their second victory of the 2021 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) with a dominant victory over the Guyana Amazon Warriors by 51 runs, Roston Chase starring with both the bat (85), then the ball, as he took the valuable wicket of Warriors captain Nicholas Pooran.

Guyana Amazon Warriors claimed a stunning Super Over victory over the Trinbago Knight Riders at the 2021 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL).

St Kitts & Nevis Patriots maintained their unbeaten start to the 2021 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) with a dramatic six-wicket victory over the Guyana Amazon Warriors.

A solid opening partnership between Evin Lewis and Devon Thomas helped St Kitts & Nevis Patriots make light work of an insufficient total from Guyana Amazon Warriors to secure an 8-wickets win at the 2021 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) on Saturday.

 Batting first, the Warrior put up 146 for 8 in their 20 overs, but in pursuit, the Patriots, who were anchored by a stunning opening stand of 113 between Lewis and Thomas, only lost two wickets to secure an easy second win.

The Warriors won the toss and elected to bat, but they struggled to get their innings underway in the face of some tidy bowling from the Patriots. Dominic Drakes was the star but there were excellent spells inside the PowerPlay from Sheldon Cottrell and Paul van Meekeren.

It was Cottrell who got the first breakthrough when he had Brandon King caught by Sherfane Rutherford off a leading edge. The Warriors once again pushed Odean Smith up the order as a pinch hitter but he didn’t have the same success as in the first game against the Knight Riders, falling for a seven-ball duck.

  Wickets continued to fall throughout the Warriors innings, and they found themselves 75 for 5 in the 12th over with Drakes finishing with 3 for 26 and Fawad Ahmed claiming 2 for 33.

However, some lusty blows from Nicholas Pooran and a measured innings from Mohammad Hafeez got them to a respectable total. 

In pursuit, Thomas and Lewis were in fine form, and they made the Guyana total look under par as they batted with controlled aggression to put the Patriots in complete control of the chase.

There were few stumbles for the Patriots as Evin Lewis top-scored with 62 from 39 balls, an innings that guided his team to an eight-wicket victory with eight balls to spare.

Guyana Amazon Warriors kicked off the 2021 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) with a nine-run win over defending champions Trinbago Knight Riders at Warner Park in St Kitts.

The Knight Riders won the toss and put the Amazon Warriors into bat and despite Shimron Hetmyer’s 50, they were able to restrict their opponents to 142-7. However, the Amazon Warriors were to produce an even better bowling performance taking wickets at regular intervals to get their campaign off to a winning start. 

The Amazon Warriors began their innings well with Chandrapaul Hemraj striking two sixes but he was caught at short third man once Sunil Narine entered the attack.

The Amazon Warriors then sprung a surprise with the hard-hitting Odean Smith entering at number three to maximise the PowerPlay overs. Smith justified his promotion with 24 runs from 15 balls but once he fell the Amazon Warriors innings lost impetus leaving them struggling at the halfway stage on 57-3.

When Isuru Udana removed Shoaib Malik for a laboured two runs from 12 balls and Akeal Hosein got rid of Mohammed Hafeez shortly afterwards it looked as if Guyana had given themselves too much to do.

 Captain Nicholas Pooran walked in at a surprising number seven with five overs remaining and tried to up the ante with Shimron Hetmyer but Pooran then fell to a stunning Darren Bravo in-out-in catch on the boundary.

 Vice-captain Hetmyer had anchored the innings throughout the flurry of wickets and he cashed in at the death with some lusty blows to score the first 2021 Hero CPL 50 and ensure Guyana ended on a tricky total to chase.

 Despite losing the wickets of Lendl Simmons and Colin Munro in the PowerPlay the Knight Riders were ahead of the game at the end of the 6 overs.

 The turning point came with the introduction of Imran Tahir as he removed both Sunil Narine and Bravo in quick succession and the Amazon Warriors then continued to take wickets at regular intervals.  Smith put the game in the balance when he forced Tim Seifert into a false shot to leave the Knight Riders on 78-5 after 12 overs and it was to go from bad to worse for the Knight Riders when Romario Shepherd got Kieron Pollard to nick behind to Pooran for two runs.

 Late hitting from Dinesh Ramdin kept the Knight Riders in the game but when he fell to a smart catch from Malik all hope was lost.

Scores: S.Hetmyer 142-9, Odean Smith 24. Smith 2-10 beat Trinbago Knight Riders 133-9 (Ramdin 28, Siefert 24; Narine 2/17, Hosein 2/17) by 9 runs. 

The final squads for the 2021 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) have been confirmed. There have been alternations to the teams as a result of changes to player availability.

The teams feature the best cricketing talent from across the Caribbean and from around the world with Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Carlos Brathwaite, Shoaib Malik, Sunil Narine, Faf du Plessis, Ravi Bopara, Glenn Phillips and Kieron Pollard all set to take part.

The tournament gets underway on 26 August with the first match seeing current champions Trinbago Knight Riders taking on Guyana Amazon Warriors.

 The final squads are as follows:

Jamaica Tallawahs: Andre Russell, Rovman Powell, Chris Green, Carlos Brathwaite, Haider Ali, Chadwick Walton, Fidel Edwards, Qais Ahmad, Jason Mohhamed, Migael Pretorious, Kennar Lewis, Shamarh Brooks, Veerasammy Permaul, Abijhai Mansingh, Joshua James, Kirk McKenzie, Ryan Persaud.

St Lucia Kings: Faf Du Plessis, Keemo Paul, Wahab Riaz, Timothy David, Andre Fletcher, Kesrick Williams, Usman Qadir, Samit Patel, Obed McCoy, Rahkeem Cornwall, Mark Deyal, Roston Chase, Javelle Glen, Keron Cottoy, Jeavor Royal, Kadeem Alleyne, Alzarri Joseph.

Trinbago Knight Riders: Kieron Pollard, Ravi Rampaul, Sunil Narine, Colin Munro, Yasir Shah, Darren Bravo, Lendl Simmons, Khary Pierre, Isuru Udana, Tim Siefert, Anderson Phillip, Denesh Ramdin, Tion Webster, Akeal Hosein, Jayden Seales, Leonardo Julien, Ali Khan.

St Kitts and Nevis Patriots: Dwayne Bravo, Chris Gayle, Evin Lewis, Fabian Allen, Ravi Bopara, Paul van Meekeren, Sherfane Rutherford, Sheldon Cottrell, Fawad Ahmed, Devon Thomas, Rayad Emrit, Asif Ali, Colin Archibald, Jon-Russ Jaggesar, Dominic Drakes, Joshua Da Silva, Mykile Louis.

Barbados Royals: Glen Phillips, Jason Holder, Thisara Perrera, Mohammad Amir, Johnson Charles, Shai Hope, Oshane Thomas, Kyle Mayers, Hayden Walsh Jr, Azam Khan, Justin Greaves, Ashley Nurse, Jake Lintott, Nyeem Young, Joshua Bishop, Samit Patel.

Guyana Amazon Warriors: Nicholas Pooran, Shoaib Malik, Imran Tahir, Shimron Hetmyer, Mohammad Hafeez, Brandon King, Naveen Ul Haq, Romario Shepherd, Waqar Salamkhiel, Chandrapaul Hemraj, Odean Smith, Gudakesh Motie, Anthony Bramble, Kevin Sinclair, Ashmead Nedd.

Following the 2021 player draft of the Hero CPL, the franchises announced their full rosters earlier today.

Included in the squads are a number of overseas signings that include Shakib al Hasan, Chris Morris, Faf du Plessis, Matthew Wade, Sandeep Lamichhane and Shoaib Malik. There are also spots for talented Pakistani players Haider Ali, Azam Khan and Usman Qadir and Englishman Samit Patel, who will be playing at his first Hero CPL.

The full squads are listed below:

The Jamaica Tallawahs – Andre Russell, Shakib al Hasan, Carlos Brathwaite, Rovman Powell, Haider Ali, Chadwick Walton, Fidel Edwards, Qais Ahmad, Jason Mohammed, Migael Pretorius, Kennar Lewis, Veerasammy Permaul, Abhijai Mansingh, Joshua James, Kirk McKenzie, Ryan Persaud.

St Lucia Zouks – Faf Du Plessis, Keemo Paul, Wahab Riaz, Matthew Wade, Andre Fletcher, Kesrick Williams, Usman Qadir, Samit Patel, Obed McCoy, Rahkeem Cornwall, Mark Deyal, Roston Chase, Javelle Glenn, Keron Cottoy, Jeavor Royal, Kadeem Alleyne, Alzarri Joseph.

Trinbago Knight Riders – Kieron Pollard, Ravi Rampaul, Sunil Narine, Colin Munro, Sandeep Lamichhane, Darren Bravo, Lendl Simmons, Khary Pierre, Isuru Udana, Sikandar Raza, Anderson Phillip, Denesh Ramdin, Tion Webster, Akeal Hosein, Jayden Seales, Leonardo Julian, Ali Khan.

St Kitts and Nevis Patriots – Dwayne Bravo, Chris Gayle, Evin Lewis, Fabian Allen, Rassie van der Dussen, Anrich Nortje, Sherfane Rutherford, Sheldon Cottrell, Winindu Hasaranga, Devon Thomas, Rayad Emrit, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Colin Archibald, Jon-Russ Jagesar, Dominic Drakes, Joshua Da Silva, Mikyle Louis.

Barbados Tridents – Chris Morris, Jason Holder, Thisara Perera, Mohammad Amir, Johnson Charles, Shai Hope, Oshane Thomas, Kyle Mayers, Hayden Walsh Jr, Azam Khan, Raymon Reifer, Justin Greaves, Ashley Nurse, Shafiqullah Ghafari, Nyeem Young, Joshua Bishop, Samit Patel.

Guyana Amazon Warriors – Nicholas Pooran, Shoaib Malik, Imran Tahir, Shimron Hetmyer, Mohammad Hafeez, Brandon King, Naveen Ul Haq, Romario Shepherd, Waqar Salamkheil, Chandrapaul Hemraj, Odean Smith, Niall Smith, Gudakesh Motie, Anthony Bramble, Kevin Sinclair, Ashmead Nedd.

The 2021 Hero CPL bowls off at Warner Park on August 28 with the final set for September 19.

The first match of the inaugural virtual CPL was a run filled spectacle as Trinbago Knight Riders’ Colin Munro emerged victorious against Ashmead Nedd after a Super Over finish.