Guyana Amazon Warriors 99 for 1 (Ayub 52*, Hope 32) beat Trinbago Knight Riders 94 (Carty 38, Pretorius 4-26, Motie 2-7, Tahir 2-8) by nine wickets
Amazon Warriors went wicketless for nearly three overs after opting to bowl, but Knight Riders lost three wickets in as many overs to lose their way after that. Pretorius bowled Mark Deyal for 16, Shepherd trapped Chadwick Walton lbw for 10, and Pretorius had Nicholas Pooran skying one to mid-off the very next ball after wicketkeeper Azam Khan had dropped Pooran.
Knight Riders had barely recovered from 35 for 3 when their new batters, Kieron Pollard and Akeal Hosein, holed out in the same over off Motie while going for questionable big shots. Pollard found deep midwicket for a duck before Hosein miscued to long-off where Shimron Hetmyer took an excellent running catch.
Keacy Carty and Andre Russell had started to stem the slide with a few singles against Tahir and Motie but they had not even reached the halfway stage – or put up 50 on the board – when Tahir followed two googlies with a legbreak and had Russell miscue to mid-on for 3.
Amazon Warriors were in no rush at the start of their chase, especially after Keemo Paul fell for a run-a-ball 11 in the third over. Hope and Ayub saw off the next three overs of spin from Sunil Narine and Hosein with just one four to reach their lowest powerplay score of the season: 29 for 1.
That completed his half-century too, and even as the party took off, Ayub stood still at the crease with his helmet in his left hand, the bat in his right, arms spread wide, a hint of a smile on his face, till he was lifted off his feet by his jubilant team-mates.
Apart from having Hope and Ayub at the top of the batting chart, Pretorius and Tahir finished as the top-two wicket-takers with 20 and 18 wickets respectively, and Hope was also named the Player of the Tournament.
Vishal Dikshit is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo
Source: ESPN Crickinfo