In the 20th and final over of Match 21 of the 2024 Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL), the right-arm seamer was taken for 24 runs by the Guyana Amazon Warriors’ Romario Shepherd. From a shaky 113 for 8 at the end of the 19th over, the score rose to a final 137.
Earlier in the seventh over, when the score was only 39 for 3 and man-of-the-match Shimron Hetmyer on 30, he tried to pump Anrich Nortje down the ground. The ball went straight to John at mid-on. He grassed it.
When Hetmyer was finally out LBW to Tabraiz Shamsi in the 12th over, the score was 83 for 5.
Hetmyer, on 63, had scored a shade under 80% of GAW’s runs.
The last of Shepherd’s three final-over sixes passed through the hands of Dominic Drakes at long-on. The left-hander was also at long-on at 92 for 5 in the 14th over when he shelled a high catch offered by Dwaine Pretorius off Shamsi.
Drakes’ two overs cost 24 runs. With the bat, he made three off seven balls. With the bat, John contributed a solitary boundary off Joseph before the bowler trapped him right in front two balls later.
That dismissal meant that the Warriors, 91 for 4 at one stage, had lost six wickets for 16 runs.
Ashmead Nedd’s 4/25 had given them an opening. Opener Evin Lewis, struggling for runs recently, had been their Hetmyer—contributing more than half of their final total.
But when they needed a Shepherd in the final overs, Drakes and John let them down.
The Patriots’ final assignment is against the Trinbago Knight Riders at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba on Sunday evening. Defeated and dispirited, they are unlikely to be able to lift themselves for the effort they will require to record a second victory this season.
On Sunday evening, GAW take on the Antigua & Barbuda Falcons, whose fate in this 2024 season still hangs by a thread. To keep that unenviable status intact, they must slay another lion in its den as they did on Thursday evening at the Queen’s Park Oval.
Summarised scores
Toss: Saint Kitts and Nevis Patriots
Guyana Amazon Warriors: 137 for 8 (20 overs) Shimron Hetmyer 63, Romario Shepherd 34*; Ashmead Nedd 4/25, Tabraiz Shamsi 2/13
St Kitts and Nevis Patriots: 107 all out (18.3 overs) Evin Lewis 49; Shamar Joseph 3/9, Moeen Ali 2/9, Imran Tahir 2/34
Man-of-the-Match: Shimron Hetmyer
Result: Guyana Amazon Warriors win by 30 runs