Warriors keep WCPL playoff hopes alive with 25-run win over TKR

Amazon Warriors 119 for 8 (Campbelle 31, Burns 17; Pandey 2-9) beat Knight Riders 94 for 9 (Penna 28, Pandey 15*; Ismail 3-21) by 25 runs

The Guyana Amazon Warriors kept their Women’s Caribbean Premier League playoff hopes alive with a 25-run win over the Trinbago Knight Riders on Saturday. Runs for Shermaine Campbell and wickets from Shabnim Ismail and Shamillia Connell set up the victory.

The Amazon Warriors innings started brightly enough with 17-year-old Eboni Brathwaite taking the attack to the Knight Riders bowling. She smacked the hugely experienced Marizanne Kapp for six before the South African bowled her with one that nipped back for 13 (6).

In the face of the pace bowling of Kapp and Shikha Pandey, the Amazon Warriors struggled to match Brathwaite’s cameo. Shermaine Campbelle, however, continued her fine form, backing up her half-century last time out with 31 off 28 balls.

Laura Harris claimed the wicket of Campbelle to put real pressure back on the Warriors in the death overs with two new batters. Then Pandey dismissed both Nadine de Klerk and Chloe Tryon in the space of three balls to make things even harder for the Guyanese franchise. 

In the end, they reached 119 for 8 and were in need of a good bowling performance to get them over the line.

That is what the Warriors got with Ismail and Connell ripping out the Knight Riders' top order inside the power play. After the first six overs, TKR were 22 for 5, and it could have been even better if Connell hadn’t put down a chance off her own bowling to claim another wicket.

With Harris, Kapp, Deandra Dottin, Jannillea Glasgow, and Yastika Bhatia all gone inside the opening overs, it was left to Madeline Penna to try and guide the Knight Riders home. She hit Ashmini Munisar for six to try to get the run rate under control, but was caught in the deep trying to repeat the trick off the next ball.

After Penna departed, the tail had to swing for the fences, and more wickets fell as Amazon Warriors claimed a big win by restricting TKR to 94 for 9 ahead of their final group game against the Barbados Tridents on Sunday.