St Kitts and Nevis Patriots plunder 22 runs in final over to pull off remarkable chase

Dwaine Pretorius hit three successive sixes to give Patriots their first win of the tournamentt

The Cricketer | 08/09/2022 at 18:49

St Lucia: Guyana Amazon Warriors 162-6, St Kitts and Nevis Patriots 163-6 - St Kitts and Nevis Patriots win by four wickets

Scorecard

St Kitts and Nevis Patriots mounted a remarkable late show to overcome Guyana Amazon Warriors through the hitting of Dwaine Pretorius and Duan Jansen.

Faced with 22 runs to win heading into the last over, which then became 19 off four balls, Pretorius lashed three successive sixes – the third off a no ball from Romario Shepherd – to earn the reigning champions their first win of the campaign.

They had looked out of it at 108 for 6 in the 16th over, chasing 163 for victory. But the South African pair – Pretorius has represented South Africa 57 times, while Jansen is the twin brother of Marco – put together a 55-run stand in 26 deliveries, which left Guyana ruing an opportunity missed for their first win of the season.

It had initially looked like Odean Smith was set to bowl the final over, only for Shimron Hetmyer to throw the ball to Shepherd, who conceded just three runs from the first two balls, which looked as though they had all but sealed the result.

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^{Pretorius hit three successive sixes in the final over (CPL/Getty Images)}

But the third was a low full-toss nailed over deep cover by Pretorius, who until then had been playing second fiddle to Jansen, more than a decade his junior. The next ball was dispatched similarly, albeit off the back foot as Shepherd looked to go short, before a delivery above waist-height was swatted over long on by Pretorius to clinch an extraordinary win for Patriots with two legitimate deliveries to spare.

At the end of the 18th over, St Kitts and Nevis had needed 38 more runs, but Jansen hit Imran Tahir for six and four in the 19th, opening the door to what followed.

Until that stage, Guyana had dominated, squeezing the run-chase and making life a struggle for a top order featuring Andre Fletcher, Evin Lewis, Darren Bravo and Dewald Brevis. Sherfane Rutherford hit his first ball for six but fell to the second, while Dwayne Bravo also went cheaply, with no sense then of any late drama.

Earlier, Hetmyer had smashed 46 off just 21 balls to give his side the momentum at the halfway stage as each innings followed a similar pattern. Chandrapaul Hemraj used up 38 balls for his 43. Both looked like being enough until Pretorius' heroics.