Gudakesh Motie spins Amazon Warriors to CPL 2025 final

Gudakesh Motie picked four wickets to lead Guyana Amazon Warriors' charge to the final of CPL 2025. On a day when bowlers enjoyed success, Motie was the best of the lot, repeatedly denting the St. Lucia Kings in their chase. Kings suffered early but were then propped up by Khary Pierre's half-century and Tymal Mills's late assault, and yet the Kings fell short. They will now face Trinbago Knight Riders in the second qualifier.

The target in front of them was not very big but the Kings were crippled by the poor start to their chase. Tim Seifert had his middle-stump uprooted by Dwaine Pretorius in the opening over and Johnson Charles departed in the second off Romario Shepherd. Ackeem Auguste was then taken out in Pretorius's following over, reducing the Kings to 12 for 3 in the third over. Aaron Jones and Roston Chase arrested the slide, but only as far as the PowerPlay.

Gudakesh Motie wreaked havoc with a double-wicket seventh over where he cleaned up Chase and Tim David off successive deliveries. Imran Tahir then compounded the Kings' woes by knocking back the stumps of Jones in the next over as they were now down to 44 for 6. Motie continued to dig his heels as he sent captain David Wiese packing in the ninth over. Kharry Pierre and Alzarri Joseph dragged their side to 52 for 7 at the halfway stage, needing 106 off the last 60 deliveries.

Pierre and Joseph threw their bats around for three overs to up the scoring rate, but Tahir came back to break the stand as he had the latter caught at long on. Pierre however, continued his rampage as he got to a 28-ball 50 and kept his side in the hunt for a late heist. Motie however, nipped that thought in the bud by dismissing him one ball after he raised his half-century in the 17th over.

The unlikely batting duo of Tabraiz Shamsi and Tymal Mills then ran the Warriors agonisingly close. Shamsi hit a four first ball and Mills smashed Hassan Khan for two boundaries in the 18th over and hit a six and a four of Shepherd to take the equation to 14 off the last over. On the first ball of the 20th over however, Hassan had Mills caught by Tahir at cover to extinguish the chase.

Before the Warriors' bowlers made merry, the Kings' attack had feasted first. Wiese picked the only wicket in the PowerPlay, off the last ball of the phase, but a collective bowling effort helped the Kings do sizeable damage through the middle-overs. Wiese once again started up for his team by dismissing the dangerous Quentin Sampson in the eighth over. Shamarh Brooks, Shimron Hetmyer and Hassan fell in the space of 11 deliveries as the Warriors were down to 98 for 5 in 13 overs. Moeen Ali became the fourth middle-order batter with a single digit return as he fell in the 16th over.

The Warriors, though, were then propelled by whirlwind cameos from Pretorius (17 off 8) and Shepherd (21 off 8). The Warriors lost four wickets at the death to get bowled out in 19.5 overs but those 29 deliveries in that period fetched them 50 runs which eventually proved to be of great significance.

Brief Scores: Guyana Amazon Warriors 157 in 19.5 overs (Ben McDermott 34, Shai Hope 32; Tabraiz Shamsi 3-33, David Wiese 2-12) beat St. Lucia Kings 143 in 19.1 overs (Khary Pierre 50, Tymal Mills 30; Gudakesh Motie 4-30, Imran Tahir 2-22, Dwaine Pretorius 2-24) by 14 runs