Eighty-Seven for Six, 159, and Beaten by Eight Wickets — Hassan Khan's Six Sixes Were the Only Thing Jamaica Got Right at Providence

There is a version of this match report that leads with Hassan Khan, and it would be a good one. Batting at seven, coming in at 87 for 6 with the innings gone, he made 62 not out from 29 balls with six sixes, reached his fifty off 24, and turned a total heading for about 115 into one of 159.

Guyana Amazon Warriors knocked it off in 17.2 overs for the loss of two wickets. They have now played five completed matches in this CPL and won all five.

Which is the harder story to tell, and the truer one: on a good pitch at Providence, in front of a full house, the best individual innings of the night came from the losing side's No. 7 and never looked like altering the result.

Kirk McKenzie was leg before to Dwaine Pretorius off the last ball of the first over. Keacy Carty hit two sixes in twelve balls and was leg before to Pretorius as well. Usman Khan took twelve deliveries over ten and was bowled by Khary Pierre. Keemo Paul made 15 from 15 and was run out by Mohammad Nabi and Shai Hope at 83 for 4 in the thirteenth. One delivery later Rovman Powell, the Jamaica captain, was bowled by Nabi for a first-ball duck.

Eighty-three for five in 12.2 overs, and 87 for 6 when Maaz Sadaqat — who had batted through the innings for 35 from 34 without ever getting away — was caught by Quentin Sampson off Pierre in the fourteenth.

Guyana's bowling was the sort of controlled, unglamorous work that decides leagues. Pretorius three overs for twenty and two, Pierre four for twenty-one and two, Nabi four for twenty-five and one. Eleven overs, 66 runs, five wickets, plus both run-outs. Shamar Joseph's four cost 43 and Imran Tahir's 38 — the two most expensive spells of the night belonged to the two bowlers with the biggest reputations, and Tahir, captaining, had the sense to give the last of the middle overs to Pierre instead.

He came in at 87 for 6 in the fourteenth over with the innings already decided. Twenty-nine balls later he had 62 not out and Jamaica had 159.

The fifty took 24 deliveries and contained one four and five sixes. He finished with six sixes in all — against Shamar Joseph and Imran Tahir, mostly, on a ground where the straight boundaries are not short. The seventh-wicket stand with Odean Smith produced 50 in 29 balls, of which Smith contributed 13, and lasted until Smith was run out by Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Tahir at 142 in the nineteenth.

Jamaica scored 72 in their last six and a bit overs having managed 87 in the first thirteen and a half. That is the innings: a No. 7 outscoring the top six.

Which is also the problem. Hassan Khan bats at seven because Jamaica's top six are supposed to make the runs, and on the night the top six made 79 between them off 77 balls. A side that needs its No. 7 to hit six sixes to reach 159 is not a side in control of its batting.

Guyana's powerplay produced 65 for 1 against Jamaica's 46 for 2, and by then the match was effectively over.

Mavendra Dindyal made 33 from 17 with four sixes and was bowled by Hunain Shah at 46 in the fifth over — an opening stand of 46 in 4.3 overs that removed any question about the required rate. Rahmanullah Gurbaz then made 54 from 35, reaching his fifty off 31 with five fours and three sixes, and added 68 for the second wicket with Shai Hope before being caught by Rovman Powell off Maaz Sadaqat at 114 in the thirteenth.

That brought in Shimron Hetmyer, who made 111 not out from 43 balls earlier in this tournament, and he made 30 not out from 17 with two fours and a six. Shai Hope finished unbeaten on 39 from 35 — the least eye-catching innings of the four and arguably the most useful, because someone had to hold an end while the other three attacked.

Jamaica's bowling had one bright spot, and it was the same man: Hassan Khan's four overs cost twenty, an economy of five in an innings where his three seam colleagues went at nine, eleven and twelve. Jediah Blades, Keemo Paul and Vitel Lawes bowled 9.2 overs for 101 between them without a wicket.

Providence Stadium under lights gave the seamers a little early movement — three of Jamaica's first four wickets fell to lbw or bowled — and then flattened out completely. Three hundred and nineteen runs came in 37.2 overs and the second innings went at 9.23.

Spin worked, but only the accurate kind. Khary Pierre's four overs cost 21 and brought two wickets; Imran Tahir's four cost 38. Nabi's off-spin, which took 4 for 22 against this same Jamaica side at Sabina Park three weeks ago, went for 25 and took one — still a good spell, but a reminder that the Providence surface did not grip the way the first meeting's did.

Two reviews, both Guyana's, both struck down, one of them an umpire's-call reprieve for Carty in the fourth over. He was leg before to Pretorius three balls later anyway.

We leaned to the Guyana Amazon Warriors and built the case on three things — an unbeaten record, Providence, and a bowling attack that had already dismantled this Jamaica line-up once. All three held, and the margin (eight wickets, sixteen balls) was wider than we expected.

We named Mohammad Nabi as the GAW player to watch on a gripping surface. He bowled Rovman Powell first ball and finished 1 for 25 — good, not decisive; the decisive spells came from Pretorius and Pierre, neither of whom we flagged. That is a miss and we will own it.

The bigger miss was on Jamaica. We built half the preview around Saim Ayub, whose 102 from 58 at Warner Park we said had changed the dynamic of their batting order, and we cited Andre Russell as the man who could change a match without warning. Neither played. Writing a preview around two players who were not in the XI is a research failure, not a judgement one, and it is the sort we should not repeat.

What we did not see coming at all was Hassan Khan. He was not mentioned in the preview and he made 62 from 29.

Guyana Amazon Warriors are second on ten points from five completed matches — five played, five won — with a net run rate of 2.314, comfortably the best in the competition. Antigua & Barbuda Falcons lead on eleven from nine, but the Warriors have games in hand and three fixtures left: St Kitts & Nevis Patriots, the Falcons, and Saint Lucia Kings. Win two and the top-two finish is theirs.

Jamaica Kingsmen drop to third on eight points from nine with a net run rate of -0.096 and a single match remaining, against Barbados. Fourth-placed Saint Lucia are level on eight with a worse run rate; St Kitts have seven from eight with two to play. Jamaica's qualification is now partly out of their hands, which is a harsh outcome for a side that has won four and lost five.

The player to track is Hassan Khan. Sixty-two from 29 with six sixes at No. 7, and four overs for twenty with the ball — on a night his side lost by eight wickets, he was the best cricketer on the field.