Half-centuries for Mohammad Hafeez and Shimron Hetmyer were not enough for Warriors
St Kitts and Nevis Patriots 168 for 4 (Rutherford 59*) beat Guyana Amazon Warriors 166 for 3 (Hafeez 70, Hetmyer 52) by six wickets
After an opening stand of 69 in nine overs between Devon Thomas and Evin Lewis, Patriots stalled as they lost 3 for 4 – Imran Tahir removing both openers – and when Rutherford and Dwayne Bravo struggled to score at much more than a run-a-ball the asking rate blew out above 11 an over.
However, from needing 45 off 24 balls the game swung in Patriots’ favour when Rutherford was spilled on the rope by Kevin Sinclair with the ball going for six. When the 18th over went for 13 it left 19 needed off the last two with plenty of wickets in hand.
The first three balls of the penultimate over threatened a twist when they brought just a single and the wicket of Bravo – taken at long-off against Naveen-ul-Haq – but a wide followed by two more sixes for Rutherford put any doubt to bed before Fabian Allen struck his first delivery for four.
It meant that Nicholas Pooran was only able to face nine balls in the innings and overall the last four overs brought an underwhelming 30 runs as van Meekeren, Dominic Drakes and Bravo closed out strongly.