Patrick Noone analyses the performances of the Amazon Warriors’ spinners in their win over the Patriots
Guyana Amazon Warriors have always been known for their spinners – no T20 franchise in any competition has bowled a higher percentage of spin overs than their 52%. In the past, that has partly been a result of the conditions on their home ground – of active grounds, none has a lower economy rate for spinners than Providence’s 6.17.
Of course, this year they have been denied that home advantage by circumstances out of their control, but the blueprint remains the same: pick quality spinners, let them squeeze the opposition into making mistakes and reap the rewards.
Tonight, it was Chris Green and Imran Tahir who fulfilled the role for the Amazon Warriors, taking 3-42 between them from their eight overs, helping to restrict St Kitts and Nevis Patriots to 127-8 from their 20 overs.
Between them, the pair are a perfect combination of attack and defence. Green is the most miserly spinner in the world game since the start of 2016, while Tahir is a constant threat with his variations, rarely is he trying to simply contain. Both are comfortable bowling at any stage of the innings, affording their side the kind of flexibility of bowling options that is so crucial for winning T20 matches and tournaments.
Green set the tone with the first over of the innings, starting off with three dots as he cramped Chris Lynn for room with his round the wicket angle and a stump-to-stump line. The pair then combined for the first wicket of the evening when Tahir removed Lynn with the very first ball of his spell, a length ball that forced a miscue from the Australian and the catch was safely taken by Green at mid-off.
In Green’s next over, Evin Lewis threatened to cut loose with successive boundaries, but that was followed up by a sharp bit of work behind the stumps from Nicholas Pooran to remove the dangerous left-hander. Those fours were the only boundaries Green conceded in his four over spell, with each of the remaining 16 runs against him coming from 15 singles and a wide.
Meanwhile, Tahir bamboozled Jahmar Hamilton with a googly to complete something of a baptism of fire for the batsman in this year’s CPL. Having been dismissed first ball by a Rashid Khan wrong’un yesterday, Hamilton didn’t last much longer tonight before suffering the same fate.
The scorecard will say that Keemo Paul was the pick of the bowlers – and he was good value for his 4-19 – but the spin twins emphasised the team nature of an effective bowling attack. The Patriots batsmen struggled so much to get Green and Tahir away, attacking them 40% and 50% respectively, that it meant they had to go after Amazon Warriors’ seamers. Paul was attacked 65% of the time, which led to batsman errors, which led to wickets for him.
The match was won by the Amazon Warriors bowlers and they will be relieved to have got off the mark after yesterday’s defeat to Trinbago Knight Riders. It was a game they would have expected to win against a Patriots side who already look as though they’re in for a long season, but they got the bulk of the job done efficiently until a late wobble saw them rather scramble over the finish line. Nonetheless, a reasonably comfortable win for the Amazon Warriors who will surely face a sterner test in their next match against Jamaica Tallawahs.
Patrick Noone is a CricViz analyst
