PROV­I­DENCE – The Guyana Ama­zon War­riors launched the in­au­gur­al Glob­al Su­per League in style, fol­low­ing a com­pre­hen­sive six-wick­et vic­to­ry over the La­hore Qa­lan­dars at the Prov­i­dence Sta­di­um in Guyana on Tues­day.

Opt­ing to field first af­ter win­ning the toss, War­riors skip­per Im­ran Tahir’s de­ci­sion proved spot on as Tanz­im Hasan Sak­ib struck ear­ly, dis­miss­ing Mirza Baig lbw in the sec­ond over for five to claim the tour­na­ment’s first wick­et. Though Baig’s part­ner, Adam Ross­ing­ton coun­ter­at­tacked with a brisk 32 off 20 balls, his de­par­ture cour­tesy of Dwaine Pre­to­rius’ catch, marked the be­gin­ning of the Qa­lan­dars’ strug­gles.

The game’s defin­ing mo­ment came in the 19th over when Pre­to­rius show­cased his death-bowl­ing prowess. The South African all-rounder dis­man­tled the Qa­lan­dars’ low­er or­der, claim­ing four wick­ets, in­clud­ing Abell for a top score of 48, Car­los Brath­waite (9), Asif Afri­di (0), and Fa­heem Ashraf (1), in a sin­gle over.

Pre­to­rius’ in­cred­i­ble fig­ures of 4-21 left La­hore floun­der­ing at 121-9. Salman Mirza’s dis­missal in the fi­nal over capped the in­nings at a mod­est 125.

Chas­ing 125, the Ama­zon War­riors’ in­nings mir­rored the match’s ear­li­er phas­es, com­bin­ing sta­bil­i­ty with bursts of bril­liance. Shai Hope an­chored the chase with a com­posed un­beat­en 45 off 43 balls, en­sur­ing the team re­mained on course de­spite oc­ca­sion­al hic­cups.

As the tar­get nar­rowed to 17 runs from 18 balls, Keemo Paul turned the tide de­ci­sive­ly by smash­ing 20 runs off Mirza’s fi­nal over, in­clud­ing a tow­er­ing six to fin­ish on 27 from just 13 balls, seal­ing the vic­to­ry.

CMC

Scores:

LA­HORE QA­LAN­DARS 125/10 (19.2 Overs) (Tom Abell 48, Adam Ross­ing­ton 25, Dwaine Pre­to­rius 4-21, Tanz­im Hasan Sak­ib 2-20) vs GUYANA AMA­ZON WAR­RIORS 129/4 (17.5 Overs) (Shai Hope 45 not out, Keemo Paul 27 not out, Asif Afri­di 2-13, Salman Mirza 2-35). Ama­zon War­riors won by 6 wick­ets.