Guyana edge TKR in thriller to win maiden WCPL Title

Guyana Amazon Warriors won their first Women's Caribbean Premier League (WCPL) title on Thursday night in Bridgetown after a strong bowling performance led by Shabnim Ismail set up a 146-run chase against Trinbago Knight Riders. The second part of the game wasn't too straightforward for them, though, as they sank to 111 for 7, but Chedean Nation changed the script with an unbeaten 39 from 21 balls to win the day for her team with three balls in hand.

Amazon Warriors were stuttering through most of the chase. In the first over, Shikha Pandey sent Eboni Brathwaite back. By the end of the tenth over, captain Deandra Dottin, Brianna Harricharan, and Karishma Ramharack had reduced Amazon Warriors to 55 for 5. Shemaine Campbelle, who had struggled to reach 9 from 15 balls, was also out by the 13th over, becoming Pandey's second victim.

After that, the Amazon Warriors entered the contest with a score of 71 to 6.

Captain Chloe Tryon joined Nation for the seventh wicket, and the two added 40 runs in just 23 balls, Tryon very much the more aggressive partner, scoring 23 in ten balls in the stand before falling to Laura Harris for 32 in just 18 balls.

It was all Nation after that. Nation took control, hitting four sixes in her 39 not out off 21 balls, including one each from Harris, Dottin, Pandey, and Ramharack, the final one to finish the game. Sheneta Grimmond partnered her skillfully from No. 9 with a run-a-ball 10. She was named the Player of the Match too.

After Ismail's 2 for 18 and Knight Riders' running (two run-outs) had given Amazon Warriors a moderate target to chase in a tournament in which they had previously chased 159 against Barbados Tridents, it should not have been that difficult for the batters to accomplish.

Harris fell second ball to Ismail, losing her stumps, but Sushma Verma, flown in as a replacement for Yastika Bhatia after the latter left for India A duties, kept things on track with a 34-ball 39. There were small contributions from Dottin (10), Jannillea Glasgow (retired out on 16 off 25) and Madeline Penna (12 not out), but all of them scored at well below a run-a-ball. It was only Marizanne Kapp, with a ten-ball 25, and Pandey, with 27 from 17 balls, who gave the total the spike it needed.

And until Tryon and Nation turned the tables on them, it was almost enough for the Knight Riders because of the implosion of the Amazon Warriors.