Patriots will have some time to rejoice and you can have some time to cool off as well. Barbados Royals will take on St Lucia Kings later this evening, we'll see you then.
As Bravo said, there is a lot to improve. They bowled three extra overs due to the 17 wides and a no ball. Hetmyer cut loose with the bat and Warriors got 10-15 runs extra. Their bowling in the chase was good too, almost till the end. Hetmyer defended his decision to bowl Shepherd but it is subject to scrutiny and how they deal with similar situations in the future would be telling.
Shimron Hetmyer: I don't think I would have done anything differently. We back ourselves every time and it doesn't came off some time. Romario was in the plan to bowl the last over but it did not go our way. It's challenge but also nice to have eight bowling options and them being ready. We have a platform we are working towards with the bat, we need to continue to do our thing.
DJ Bravo: I was on the massage table and when he said 'we won', it was unbelievable. Even with the win, we have a lot to improve. We will discuss it later. Our players gave the opposition momentum which needs to improve.
Duan Jansen, Match Hero: Great feeling because we've spoken about this being a must-win game. To take it down to the end, and pulling out a win like that was a team performance and special. (Turning point) Last over and the second last over gave us momentum. Fletcher did well to keep us in the game too.
In this chase, Hetmyer bowling Stirling early and getting an over off Hemraj seemed to be a masterstroke as they were cheap and allowed the spinners to bowl in the second half or at the death where their bowling hasn't clicked. Then, with four overs to spare, there was rain. On the return, Patriots lost a couple of quick wickets and seemed to not be going after the bowling. But in the last two, they tried to take on all-comers. The slaps off Tahir's wide balls were spectacular. Spare a thought for Shepherd, he looked to go hard length and yorker but missed them. Jansen and Pretorius' table-flipping were exquisite, getting boundaries on demand and bringing up the defending champions' first win.
1:52pm: This was the neo-noir of anti-climaxes. This was Warriors' game to win, Hetmyer even gave Odean the ball but then decided to go with Shepherd and Jansen cleared it with Pretorius.
Oshi: "Really poor decision there by Hetty...Shepherd always goes for a lot of runs in death overs...over and over again...i really do not understand why he is still used at this stage. smh"
Seven off two!