Barbados book CPL final spot, silence Guyana crowd

BARBADOS Royals ended Guyana Amazon Warriors' four-game win streak on Tuesday to book their spot in the Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) final at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence. The two-time CPL champs beat Guyana by 85 runs in a dominant display.

In contrast to Sunday's top-order collapse to the same opponents, in a preliminary contest, Barbados Royals got the perfect start from their openers, who put on 53 for the first wicket.

Man-of-the-match Rahkeem Cornwall treated his hosts with sheer disdain, clobbering 11 sixes for a top score of 91, his highest total of the CPL.

A partisan crowd was expecting a similar outcome to Sunday when Barbados lost their first three wickets for eight runs and never recovered. But Cornwall and Kyle Mayers (26) left them silent with some brutal hitting.

Guyana thought they had made inroads when left-arm spinner Junior Sinclair bowled out Myers and Imran Tahir trapped new batsman Harry Tector LBW for a duck, but Cornwall and Azam Khan had other ideas.

The pair put on 90 runs for the third wicket to take the game away from Guyana. Even the typically frugal Tahir was given some rough treatment with three sixes in one over – two from Cornwall and one from Khan.

By the time Shakib Al Hasan got rid of Cornwall, in the 17th over, the platform was set for a big total.

Poor bowling and fielding compounded a bad day for Guyana as Khan (52) continued the late onslaught to propel Barbados to 195 for five.

Any hope of a successful chase was dashed early as Guyana's in-form opener Rahmunullah Gurbaz was outbowled to Mayers in the first over. From there, it was a steady procession of batsmen back to the pavilion. Shai Hope (16), Al Hasan (1) and Chandrapaul Hemraj (10) all fell cheaply as Guyana were reduced to 32 for four.

Skipper Shimron Hetmyer tried his best to fight back with 37 off 29 balls but failed to find a reliable partner.

As wickets continued to tumble, the Guyana crowd began making their exit, still hopeful their team would not be following them out of the tournament on Wednesday. Ramon Simmonds (3/17), Mujeeb Ur Rahman (2/21) and Cornwall (2/10) did the damage as Guyana were bowled out for 108.

Guyana will face the winner of Tuesday night's match between St Lucia Kings and Jamaica Tallawahs for a second crack at the final.

Summarised Scores: BARBADOS ROYALS 195/5 - Rahkeem Cornwall 91, Azam Khan 52 vs GUYANA AMAZON WARRIORS 108 - Shimron Hetmyer 37, Ramon Simmonds 3/17, Mujeeb Ur Rahman 2/21 and Cornwall 2/10.