Shadab Khan hit 30 off nine balls, and Guyana’s unbeaten CPL run ended at six

Antigua and Barbuda Falcons ended the Guyana Amazon Warriors’ unbeaten start to CPL 2026 with a 65-run win at Providence, and most of the damage was done in the last two overs of the first innings. The Falcons were 136 for 5 with 13 balls left. They finished on 182 for 5. Shadab Khan, in at number six, was 30 not out from nine deliveries.

Guyana lost four wickets inside the powerplay chasing 183 and never got the innings back. They were bowled out for 117 in 14.2 overs. Imran Tahir’s side had won their first six matches of the tournament, and this was the first time anyone had beaten them.

Nine balls that decided the total

For 18 overs this looked like a par score. Karima Gore and Evin Lewis put on 31 inside four overs before Khary Pierre had Gore caught by Rahmanullah Gurbaz, and Tahir trapped Lewis lbw in the eighth. Amir Jangoo took 30 balls over 27, which tells you how the middle overs went. Mohammad Nabi conceded 23 in his four, Tahir 21 in his.

Hasan Nawaz’s 36 from 27 kept the rate ticking, and when Moeen Ali fell to Romario Shepherd at 136 for 5 in the 18th, Guyana looked to have contained it. Then Shadab came out and hit three sixes and two fours. He and Fabian Allen added 46 from the last 13 balls, all of it unbeaten, and Shepherd’s figures went to 3-0-51-1. The Falcons won by 65.

Fifty in 25 balls, and then nothing

Guyana’s reply started the way a chase of 183 should. Rahmanullah Gurbaz hit three sixes in eight balls, Mavendra Dindyal hit two fours and two sixes, and the fifty came up in 25 deliveries. It was also, by then, 50 for 2.

Alzarri Joseph did the early work. He bowled Gurbaz for 18 in the third over, had Shai Hope caught by Moeen three balls later for a duck, and removed Dindyal for 25 in the fifth. Joshua James then had Shimron Hetmyer caught at 59 for 4. Guyana were 71 for 4 at the end of the powerplay, which reads healthy until you notice they had used up half their side and 30 per cent of their balls.

Joseph’s 4 for 41 was not tidy, but four wickets in a chase that lasted 86 deliveries is a match-winning return, and three of them came before the sixth over.

The spinners finished it

What followed was quicker still. Shadab bowled Quentin Sampson in the seventh and Dwaine Pretorius in the ninth. Sufyan Moqim had Shepherd caught by Gore and bowled Shamar Joseph. Guyana were 99 for 8 in the tenth over, with Nabi stranded at the other end on 14.

Between them Shadab and Moqim bowled seven overs for 37 runs and four wickets, barely letting Guyana score off them. Nabi and Tahir dragged the total to 117 in a ninth-wicket stand of 18 before Tahir was bowled by Joseph and Nabi was given out lbw to James, both at the same score.

What it does to the table

The win takes the Falcons to the top of the CPL table on 13 points from 10 matches, and their league programme is now complete. Six wins, three defeats and a washout against St Kitts and Nevis Patriots on 30 August is enough to guarantee a top-two seeding and the Qualifier 1 place that comes with it, because nobody outside Guyana can now reach 13 points.

Guyana can. They have 12 points from seven games and three left, against St Lucia Kings, Trinbago Knight Riders and Barbados Tridents, and a net run rate of 1.112 that is comfortably the best in the competition even after conceding 182 and losing by 65. They had already sealed a playoff place before this match, and the only thing still open for them is whether they overhaul the Falcons at the top. Both will get two chances at the final either way. First place decides who is favoured in Qualifier 1 on 17 September.

The two sides have now beaten each other once. Guyana won the earlier meeting on 23 August by seven wickets with 61 balls to spare, which was the sort of scoreline that made them favourites for everything. Nobody who watched Tuesday night at Providence would write them off either. It just no longer looks inevitable.

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