CPL 2025
Seales celebrates one amongst his four wickets © CPL via Getty Images.
Antigua & Barbuda Falcons qualified to the playoffs for the first time in Caribbean Premier League history following a tense four-wicket win over Guyana Amazon Warriors at the Providence Stadium. On a tricky pitch, Falcons’ momentous victory was setup by Jayden Seales and Usama Mir, who combined to take seven wickets and restricted a powerful Warriors line-up to their lowest total at home – 99. The chase still proved to be tricky but Amir Jangoo batted through for a sedate half-century to get the team over the line with four wickets and five balls to spare.
The early tone for the victory push was set by birthday boy Seales after his captain Imad Wasim won the toss and asked the hosts to take first strikes. After keeping Moeen Ali quiet in the early part of his second over, he pushed one across the left-hander and had him caught at backward point. Seales picked two more wickets in the final over of the PowerPlay. Ben McDermott, whose attempts at a reprise of a scoop shot he’d hit for four didn’t work out and the middle stump was knocked back. Then Shimron Hetmyer fell for a three-ball duck, closing his bat face early and lobbing a simple catch to point.
If the PowerPlay was all about Seales, then the middle overs were Mir’s to take over. He began by effecting a rather bizarre run-out when he fumbled on his follow-through to field a ball but it ricocheted off his boot to hit the stumps at the bowler’s end with Hassan Khan backing up too far. In that same first over, Mir also knocked over the only batter who appeared to have mastered the slow conditions – Shai Hope – with a ball that spun past the batter’s defences and found the stumps.
The Falcons got their other spinners into play with both Imad Wasim and Shakib Al Hasan also landing a blow each but it was Mir that continued to produce the magic. He struck two more times in the 15th over with big spinning legspinners that knocked over Romario Shepherd and Dwaine Pretorius as the Warriors slipped to 78 for 9. Quentin Sampson added 19 valuable runs before he was cleaned up by the returning Seales as the hosts folded just short of the 100 mark.
The Warriors weren’t going to go down at home without a fight and they struck early when Pretorius knocked over Andries Gous in the first over of the reply. In the fourth over, captain Imran Tahir struck twice off successive deliveries to dismiss Kevin Wickham and Karima Gore. Moeen added a couple of wickets himself and after 37 balls in the chase, the Falcons were 36 for 5.
It needed a special kind of innings to overcome the wobble and Jangoo was on hand to provide just that. In the company of Imad, he began nudging singles off both Tahir and Moeen and picked the rare looseners off when the seamers came back. Just when the batting pair appeared to have seen off the trouble, the 29-run partnership was ended when a lax Imad was run-out by Hope. Jangoo released the pressure with a six off Hassan. When Tahir returned for his final over, Fabian Allen found a six off his own. The trouble was averted and the Falcons could go through with Jangoo helping himself to another maximum to get to a steady but crucial half-century. The passage past the group stage was sealed with the first ball of the final over.
Brief scores: Guyana Amazon Warriors 99 in 18.1 overs (Shai Hope 26; Jayden Seales 4-15, Usama Mir 3-17) lost to Antigua & Barbuda Falcons 103/6 in 19.1 overs (Amir Jangoo 51*; Moeen Ali 2-10) by four wickets
© Cricbuzz
