Chris Green, Shadab Khan get Guyana off the mark

Chris Green's all-round effort and an impressive burst from Shadab Khan helped Guyana Amazon Warriors get off the mark in CPL 2019 with a 13-run victory over St Lucia Zouks at the Providence Stadium. Guyana, last season's finalists hoping to make that elusive final step this year, overcame a stutter in either innings courtesy Green, who provided a final flourish with a 15-ball 28 and then backed that with two vital strikes to dent the Zouks chase.

The game itself followed a very similar ebb and flow pattern to yesterday's tournament opener involving Trinbago Knight Riders. Here, Guyana were put into bat by Darren Sammy's team, who quickly proceeded to leave their hosts 25 for 2 inside the fourth over. It prompted a cautious recovery stand between Shimron Hetmyer and Shoaib Malik, both of whom remained content at scoring under a run-a-ball in their 48-run stand.

Just when it seemed like Guyana had weathered the storm enough to mount a charge of their own, Obed McCoy removed Hetmyer and his fellow international Nicholas Pooran off successive deliveries. Sherfane Rutherford and Malik followed in the next four overs to leave Guyana reeling at 98 for 6. Keemo Paul and Green then blasted their way out of trouble by adding 48 off just 21 balls, with Paul, in particular, slamming three sixes and as many fours in his 22-ball knock of 38. The pair's flourish meant Guyana had posted 155, enough to test the Zouks' early-season mettle. '

It nearly proved too easy for Zouks, re-instated into the competition at the expense of the St Lucia Stars. Rakheem Cornwall, fresh off a Test debut against India, opened the batting and slammed seven fours and a six enroute his 14-ball 36 and threatened to call an early finish to the proceedings. That was until Green brought his innings to a screeching halt. Green also took out Andre McCarthy, exposing the Zouks middle-order to the magic of Shadab Khan.

Shadab dismissed Andre Fletcher, Cristopher Barnwell and Sammy in a miserly spell of legspin bowling while Romario Shepherd added two more wickets effectively snuffing out any hopes of Zouks emerging victorious on their first attempt after a two-season hiatus.

Brief scores: Guyana Amazon Warriors 155/9 in 20 overs (Keemo Paul 38, Chris Green 28; Obed McCoy 4-41) beat St Lucia Zouks 142/9 in 20 overs (Rahkeem Cornwall 36; Shadab Khan 3-16) by 13 runs.