The Jamaica Kingsmen overcame the Guyana Amazon Warriors to reach the 2026 Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL) final in a thrilling match at the Kensington Oval, last night.
The five-wicket victory for the Jamaican franchise gives them a chance to claim the CPL in the year they returned to the competition when they face the Antigua and Barbuda Falcons tomorrow.
The Guyana Amazon Warriors set a very challenging target of 207 thanks to Shimron Hetmyer’s second hundred of the season, with Shai Hope and Quentin Sampson giving him excellent support throughout the innings.
At the halfway stage it seemed that runs on the board in a knockout game would be enough to see the Amazon Warriors through to their fourth consecutive CPL final, but a blistering start from Maaz Sadaqat and a classy half century from Keacy Carty set up the Kingsmen’s victory which was sealed by Hassan Khan hitting a boundary to reach the victory target with two balls to spare.
In the opening overs the Warriors batters struggled to get going once again as they reached 37 for two at the end of the Powerplay. This was a similar position to where the Guyanese franchise had found themselves against the Falcons before they collapsed to 76 all out a day earlier.
Here things were very different, with Hetmyer batting brilliantly in an innings that had more sixes than fours and an insane level of power hitting. He reached his hundred from the last ball of the innings when he slashed Andre Russell over third man for four, having faced just 45 balls.
In reply, the Kingsmen were once again thankful for the Powerplay efforts of Sadaqat who made 41 from just 17 balls. The fact that the score was 42 for one when Khary Pierre took a steepling catch to remove him shows just how dominate he was in the opening exchanges.
The quick rate at which Sadaqat scored allowed Carty and Kirk McKenzie time to get themselves set and get the rate needed under control. It looked as if Jamaica were cruising to the victory but there was a twist to come as they lost the wickets of Carty, Saim Ayub and Russell to give them a few jitters in the closing moments.
However, with Rovman Powell there at the end, unbeaten on 40, they managed to stay calm and he has once again led a Jamaican team to the CPL just as he did in 2022.
Summarised scores:
GUYANA AMAZON WARRIORS 206-4, 20 overs (Shimron Hetmyer 102 n.o., Shai Hope 40, Quentin Sampson 29, Romario Shepherd 10 n.o.).
Vs JAMAICA KINGSMEN 207-5, 19.4 overs (Keacy Carty 56, Maaz Sadaqat 41, Rovman Powell 40 n.o., Kirk McKenzie 33, Saim Ayub 23; Dwaine Pretorius 2/37)
—-Kingsmen won by five wickets.