KINGSMEN OVERCOME HETMYER HUNDRED TO REACH FINAL
Jamaica Kingsmen overcame the Guyana Amazon Warriors to reach the 2026 Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL) final in a thrilling match at the Kensington Oval. This victory for the Jamaican franchise gives them a chance to claim the CPL in the year they returned to the competition when they face the Antigua & Barbuda Falcons on Sunday.
The Guyana Amazon Warriors set a very challenging target of 207 thanks to Shimron Hetmyer’s second hundred of the season with Shai Hope and Quentin Sampson giving him excellent support throughout the innings.
At the halfway stage it seemed that runs on the board in a knockout game would be enough to see the Amazon Warriors through to their fourth consecutive CPL final, but a blistering start from Maaz Sadaqat and a classy half century from Keacy Carty set up the Kingsmen victory which was sealed by Hassan Khan hitting four runs to reach the victory target.
In the opening overs the Warriors batters struggled to get going once again as they reached 37/2 at the end of the Power Play. This was a similar position to where the Guyanese franchise had found themselves against the Falcons before they collapsed to 76 all out a day earlier.
Here things were very different with Hetmyer batting brilliant in an innings that had more sixes than fours and insane level of power hitting. He reached his hundred from the last ball of the innings when he slashed Andre Russell over third for four having faced just 45 balls.
In reply the Kingsmen were once again thankful for the Power Play efforts of Sadaqat who made 41 from just 17 balls. The fact that the score was 42/1 when Khary Pierre took a steepling catch to remove him shows just how dominate he was in the opening exchanges.
The quick rate at which Sadaqat scored allowed Carty and Kirk McKenzie time to get themselves set and get the rate needed under control. It looked as if Jamaica were cruising to the victory but there was a twist to come as lost the wickets of Carty, Saim Ayub, Russell to give them a few jitters in the closing moments.
With Rovman Powell there at the end they managed to stay calm and he has once again led a Jamaican team to the CPL just as he did in 2022.
Sunday’s final is a mouthwatering clash that sees two in form teams replay the very first game of this year’s CPL to decide who takes the 2026 honours.
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