Amazon Warriors retain title with sensational win over Unicorns

GEORGETOWN – Defending champions Guyana Amazon Warriors produced an unbelievable performance to edge the San Francisco Unicorns by six runs in a low scoring Global Super League (GSL) final in Guyana on Saturday.

The Unicorns looked to be on their way to a maiden title after Anirudh Immanuel and Peter Siddle took three wickets apiece to rout the home side for a meagre 85 in 18.5 overs at the Providence Stadium.

But in a stunning turn of events, Dwaine Pretorius and Mohammad Nabi both grabbed three wickets to see the visitors collapse from 53 for three to 79 all out in a record-breaking thriller.

It was the lowest-scoring match of the 2026 GSL, the lowest successful defence in T20 tournament final history and the lowest match aggregate in a T20 franchise league final.

At one stage, it didn’t appear as though the Amazon Warriors would even get up to their eventual total after Siddle and Immanuel ran through their top order to leave them in shambles at 29 for eight inside nine overs.

It took a 41-run partnership between Matthew Forde, who topscored with 28 off 23 balls and Pretorius, who made an unbeaten 17 off 30 balls to boost their final tally.

Captain Imran Tahir was the only other batter to score in double digits, with his 11 coming while batting at number 11.

Immanuel ended with the stunning figures of 3-7, while Siddle took 3-18.

Despite losing Tim Robinson to the first ball of the innings, and Connor Esterhuizen and Hassan Khan cheaply to slip to 28 for three, the Unicorns recovered through Oliver Peake and Sanjay Krishnamurthi to reach 53 for three.

But when Nabi had the latter caught for nine, it triggered a collapse that saw the Unicorns lose five wickets for five runs to slump to 58 for eight.

Fabian Allen was then bowled by Pretorius for six to make it 72 for nine to set up a tense finish.

With seven runs required for victory off the last 10 balls, Callum Stow set off for a quick single after pushing Matthew Forde to mid-off, but was run out by a direct throw at the non-striker’s end from Shimron Hetmyer to spark massive celebrations among the Amazon Warriors.

Nabi, who was named Player-of-the-Match, ended with 3-12, Pretorius took 3-24 and Tahir 2-16.

CMC