Shadab Khan and Alzarri Joseph turned in match-altering performances to end Guyana Amazon Warriors‘ perfect start to CPL 2026 and take Antigua and Barbuda Falcons to the top of the table. The Falcons now have 13 points to the Amazon Warriors’ 12, though the latter have three games in hand.

Before this defeat, the Amazon Warriors had won six out of six games this season. And they looked in good shape to continue their run after choosing to bowl, with their bowlers keeping a tight lid on the scoring for 17 overs, restricting the Falcons to 122 for 4. At that stage, Cricinfo’s forecasted total was 151.

Falcons’ top four had all spent time at the crease without being able to break the shackles – Karima Gore, Evin Lewis, Amir Jangoo and Hasan Nawaz all passed 20 while scoring at sub-135 strike rates.

It all changed when Falcons’ spin-bowling allrounders came to the crease. Moeen Ali (18 off 12) and Fabian Allen (11 not out off 7) hit three sixes between them, and Shadab went ballistic, smashing an unbeaten 30 off just nine balls, hitting two fours and three sixes. In all, the Falcons ransacked 60 runs in their last three overs, with Romario Shepherd going for 41 across the 18th and 20th.

And just like that, the Amazon Warriors were chasing 183. They began frenetically, with Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Mavendra Dindyal putting on 33 for the first wicket in just 14 balls, but Alzarri turned the tide by striking twice in the third over of the innings.

And having removed Gurbaz and Shai Hope, Alzarri struck again in his next over, sending back Dindyal for a 13-ball 25. That would remain the highest score of the Amazon Warriors innings, which went into a rapid spiral. Seamer Joshua James and the Pakistani wristspin twins Shadab and Sufyan Moqim took two wickets each – with Shadab going for just 19 in his four overs – as the Amazon Warriors folded for 117 in just 14.2 overs.

Alzarri, meanwhile, finished with 4 for 41, and rose to second on the season’s wicket-takers’ list with 14, one behind St Lucia Kings’ Matthew Forde.