St Kitts and Nevis Patriots stay alive with narrow win over Warriors

St. Kitts & Nevis Patriots injected life into their CPL 2025 campaign with a tight, five-run win against another top-four aspirant Guyana Amazon Warriors. Mohammad Rizwan set the Patriots up with a 62-ball 85, but his run out in the final over left the batting side with an under-par total of 149. The Patriots' bowlers performed in unison to drag the chase till the very last over, where Naseem Shah successfully defended 11 runs.

The chase was still on a knife's edge when it entered the death overs, with the Warriors needing 50 off the last 30 balls. The Patriots had kept a leash on the scoring and had picked half the side by this point but recent batting hero Dwaine Pretorius was still in the middle. Waqar Salamkheil changed that when he dismissed the South African in the 17th over after Navian Bidaisee bowled a fairly tight 16th over worth nine runs.

Romario Shepherd walked out and didn't let the Patriots run away immediately by clobbering a six off Salamkheil to keep the equation to a very gettable 33 off 18. Naseem then bowled four dots in the 18th over. Despite conceding a six to Keemo Paul, only seven came from it. Jason Holder dismissed Shepherd but the balance once again tilted slightly in favour of the batting side as Quentin Sampson hit two fours. Naseem however, tied him down in the 20th over by mixing up his lengths well.

The reason behind Warriors' chase going as deep as that was Patriots' relentless bowling from the top. Holder used six bowlers including himself and each returned at least one wicket and an economy rate of not more than 8 an over. Ben McDermott and Moeen Ali started solidly, if not with a flourish, but Salamkheil broke through inside the PowerPlay. Ashmead Nedd had McDermott stumped in the seventh over and Hetmyer was then cleaned up by Naseem in the ninth. A 34-run stand blossomed between Shai Hope and Hassan Khan but once that ended, the Warriors once again lost wickets in a cluster. They went from 93/3 to 95/5, before just about faltering at the death.

The two valuable points that Patriots banked via a combined bowling effort was first set up by Rizwan earlier in the game. They lost early wickets as Andre Fletcher, Kyle Mayers and Leniko Boucher departed inside the PowerPlay but Rizwan soldiered on. From 26/3, he had a brief stand with Rilee Rossouw that dragged the team to 64/4 at the halfway stage.

Holder fell cheaply but Navian Bidaisee played the perfect ally to Rizwan heading into the death overs. Rizwan hit eight fours and three sixes in his essay that lasted all the way until the last over, when he was run out. His knock and the 61-run partnership with Bidaisee carried their side to a total that the bowlers could work with.

With this win, the Patriots have six points from nine matches, with one game left to play against Barbados Royals. The Warriors are one spot ahead at fourth with eight points. They have three more fixtures to play.

Brief Scores: St Kitts and Nevis Patriots 149/6 in 20 overs (Mohammad Rizwan 85, Navian Bidaisee 22*; Gudakesh Motie 2/44, Hassan Khan 2/21) beat Guyana Amazon Warriors 144/8 in 20 overs (Shai Hope 31, Ben McDermott 21; Naseem Shah 2/27, Waqar Salamkheil 2/28) by 5 runs