Barbados Tridents win CPL after stunning unbeaten Guyana Amazon Warriors in final
Alex Hales and Harry Gurney help Tridents to their second title
Monday 20 May 2024 15:06, UK
Barbados Tridents are the 2019 Caribbean Premier League champions after snapping Guyana Amazon Warriors' 11-match winning streak and inflicting a fifth defeat in a final on their opponents.
The Warriors had won all of their games in this year's tournament heading into Saturday's showpiece in Trinidad, including three victories over the Tridents, and were well placed to claim their maiden CPL title when they reduced their rivals from 73-2 to 108-6.
However, Jonathan Carter slammed an unbeaten 50 from 27 balls and Ashley Nurse smote 19 not out from 15 as Tridents, for whom Alex Hales struck 28 from 24 deliveries up top, posted 171-6.
Raymon Reifer (4-24), Nurse (2-17) and Englishman Harry Gurney (2-24) then helped dismiss Guyana for 144 as Shoaib Malik's men suffered final heartache again having lost at the last hurdle in 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2018.
The Tridents, who also beat Guyana to win the 2014 crown, managed only three victories in their first eight games this season but four wins in their final five means they join Trinbago Knight Riders (3) and Jamaica Tallawahs (2) as multiple-time CPL champions.
Barbados had it all to do when the run outs of skipper Jason Holder (1) and Shakib Al Hasan (15) had left them six down in the 15th over - the middle order failing to build on cameos from openers Hales and Johnson Charles (39 off 22) with Shai Hope out for eight and Sussex's Phil Salt, in for the injured JP Duminy (hamstring) bagging a duck.
But Carter, who thumped four sixes and as many fours, bossed an unbroken partnership of 63 with Nurse in 31 deliveries, with 33 runs coming from the final two overs, bowled by Keemo Paul and Romario Shepherd respectively.
Tridents had been undone by Brandon King's unbeaten 132 - a CPL record - in last week's play-off encounter between the sides and the Guyana opener impressed to a point in the final, cracking 43 from 33 balls to finish with a tournament-high 496 runs this season.
But no other Warriors batsman passed 25 as the pre-match favourites slipped to defeat and Hales, Gurney and Salt became Caribbean Premier League champions.
