PROV­I­DENCE, Guyana – Ash­mi­ni Mu­nis­ar and Lau­ra Har­ris shared six wick­ets be­tween them and spear­head­ed a spir­it­ed fight­back by the Guyana Ama­zon War­riors Women that saw them pre­vail over the Trin­ba­go Knight Rid­ers Women by six runs in the open­ing match of the Women’s Caribbean Pre­mier League on Sat­ur­day.

Chas­ing the Ama­zon War­riors’ to­tal of 129 for sev­en in their 20 overs, the vis­i­tors seemed on track for vic­to­ry at 103 for four un­til Mu­nis­ar and Har­ris trig­gered a col­lapse that saw them fin­ish on 123 for nine at Prov­i­dence Sta­di­um.

Open­er Lizelle Lee scored 36 and Jess Jonassen made 22, to put the Knight Rid­ers in a good po­si­tion at 65 for one in the 12th over.

Kar­ish­ma Ramharack dis­missed the lat­ter, while Mu­nis­ar had Lee stumped to see them slip to 67 for three, but con­tri­bu­tions from cap­tain De­an­dra Dot­tin and Jahzara Clax­ton kept the Knight Rid­ers in the as­cen­dan­cy.

How­ev­er, once Har­ris had Dot­tin caught and bowled for 14 and then shat­tered Clax­ton’s stumps af­ter she scored 15, things went down­hill fast for the vis­i­tors.

Mu­nis­ar bowled Jan­nil­lea Glas­gow for two and Har­ris had Shabi­ka Gajn­abi caught and bowled for eight, to make the score 112 for sev­en with eight balls re­main­ing in the con­test.

Need­ing 16 runs of the last over, the Knight Rid­ers did them­selves no favours when Shikha Pandey and Zai­da James were run out off the first two balls of the fi­nal over.

De­spite the ef­forts of Sa­lonee Dan­gore, who fin­ished un­beat­en on nine, the Knight Rid­ers fell just short of their tar­get.

Mu­nis­ar fin­ished with fig­ures of 3-21, while Play­er-of-the-Match Har­ris took 3-25.

Ear­li­er, the home side was led by Stafanie Tay­lor’s 45 off 37 balls and Realean­na Grim­mond’s knock of 33.

They put on 70 runs for the sec­ond wick­et fol­low­ing the ear­ly loss of Amy Hunter for just three.

But once Grim­mond was dis­missed by Clax­ton, the Ama­zon War­riors suf­fered a col­lapse, los­ing five wick­ets for 36 runs in the space of six overs.

Jess Jonassen led the way for the Knight Rid­ers tak­ing 2-18.

Sum­marised Scores

AMA­ZON WAR­RIORS WOMEN 129-7 in 20 overs (Stafanie Tay­lor 45, Realean­na Grim­mond 33, Chedean Na­tion 21 not out, Lau­ra Har­ris 14; Jess Jonassen 2-18) vs KNIGHT RID­ERS WOMEN 123-9 in 20 overs (Lizelle Lee 36, Jess Jonassen 22, Jahzara Clax­ton 15, De­an­dra Dot­tin 14; Ash­mi­ni Mu­nis­ar 3-21, Lau­ra Har­ris 3-25).

(CMC)