CPL 2021: Sherfane Rutherford stars in St Kitts & Nevis' win; Amazon Warriors stun Knight Riders

St Kitts & Nevis: Guyana Amazon Warriors (GAW) stunned defending champions Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) with a nine-run win in the opening match of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL). Put in to bat, GAW made 142 for 7, riding on Shimron Hetmyer’s 50. In reply, TKR, who had won all their 12 matches in the 2020 edition, could only score 133 as Romario Shepherd (3/15) and Man of the Match Odean Smith, who scored 24 while batting, snared two wickets for 10 runs in two overs. GAW began well and hard-hitting one-down batsman Smith maximised the power play overs with 24 runs from 15 balls. Vice-captain Hetmyer (54) then anchored the innings and struck lusty blows to score his fifty. During their run chase, TKR seemed to be on track to pull off a win but the loss of both Sunil Narine and Bravo to Imran Tahir put the brakes and they lost wickets at regular intervals. TKR were 78 for 5 after 12 overs and they just could not recover from that. In another match, St Kitts & Nevis Patriots (SKN) got their campaign off to a winning start with a comfortable 21-run victory over the Barbados Royals (BR). Put in to bat, the Patriots lost three wickets, including that of Chris Gayle, for 38 runs, but a superb 115-run partnership in 70 balls between DJ Bravo (47 not out) and Sherfane Rutherford (53) ensured a solid 175 for 5 in 20 overs. Fabian Allen scored 15 in seven balls late in the innings. The Patriots’ then delivered a fine bowling performance and were never in trouble against the Barbados batsmen. The Barbados openers were gone in the first three overs. Through the middle over the Patriots tightened their grip. Shai Hope gave some hope for Barbados with a 44 but his dismissal spelt disaster despite some late effort by Azam Khan, resulting to a dominant win by Patriots.