Imran Tahir, Sohail Tanvir lead Guyana to victory

When Chris Gayle and Evin Lewis put together 71 runs in under eight overs at the top of the Patriots’ innings, it suggested a good day for their team. But once the two of them fell, to Keemo Paul and Imran Tahir respectively, the innings lost direction somewhat to end on 168/7.

It was still a competitive total, bolstered mainly by Anton Devcich’s 24-ball 35, but Guyana got many batsmen putting their hands up – Luke Ronchi, Jason Mohammed and Sohail Tanvir in the main – and got over the line with one ball left in the chase.

That gave Guyana their fourth win in six games and the No.2 spot on the table behind Trinbago Knight Riders, while the Patriots stayed at fourth place with six points from six games.

The Patriots innings, after captain Rayad Emrit asked Chris Gayle to bat, was of two parts. In the first, Gayle hit 40 in just 27 balls, with four fours and two sixes, and Lewis chipped in with 28 in 22 to give the Patriots an excellent start.

But Paul broke the stand, and Tahir burst through with three quick wickets on his way to returns of 4/22 to change the flow of the game.

It took the expertise of Devcich, who was bowled by Tanvir with six balls left in the innings, and the belligerence of Ben Cutting, who hit 19* in nine balls with two sixes, to take their team to a strong total.

The Guyana chase could well have gone awry with both Chadwick Walton and Ronchi (28) falling within the Powerplay overs, but a patient Shimron Hetmyer and an enterprising Mohammed gave the innings the right foundation.

Hetmyer, the form batsman for Guyana, scored 15 in 21 balls in a 46-run stand with Mohammed, who hit 36 in 25 balls, but the real innings of substance for their team came from Tanvir, who put in a star turn with the bat for a change.

Having walked in with the scoreboard reading 102/4 after 14 overs, Tanvir lashed out, hitting two fours and three sixes to finish on a 20-ball 37*, an effort that got him the Player of the Match award.

“I was feeling confident. I have played a couple of times before and have always scored here. I knew that I could do it today as well,” said Tanvir after the game. “I was telling (Roshon) Primus that if we play six overs, we can make it.

“When you middle a couple of deliveries, you feel that you are in. It wasn't difficult after that. Luckily, we had one left-handed and one right-handed batsman throughout.”

For Emrit, who has taken over as Guyana captain following Shoaib Malik’s departure for Pakistan duty, it was an excellent start. “Good start for the team and for me as captain. We know the type of players Gayle and Lewis are, so we had a Plan B to stifle them in the middle overs,” he said.

“We stumbled, myself included, and I take full responsibility for that. But Tahir is full of energy, and it's always good to have leg-spinners in your team.”

Gayle, meanwhile, pointed to the loss of momentum in those middle overs as the reason for the reversal. “We were 20 runs short, and our batting was terrible. Given the start we got, we should have got around 200. Our middle order collapsed and we didn't get the momentum to get to 200,” he said.

“It was a very good wicket to bat on. Tahir has to be given credit for the way he bowled. He picked up crucial wickets for his team. We bowled well in patches, but we bowled too many extras (19). Tanvir came and played a blinder, and took the game away.”