PROVIDENCE, Guyana (CMC) — Pakistan international Shoaib Malik played a captain’s innings and former South Africa leg-spinner Imran Tahir delivered a destructive spell to help runaway leaders Guyana Amazon Warriors recover from a shaky start and romp to a crushing 77-run victory over Jamaica Tallawahs, in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) on Thursday.

Warriors slumped to eight runs for four wickets inside the first two overs before Shoaib cracked five fours and two sixes in 73 from 45 balls, and shared two half-century stands with West Indies internationals Sherfane Rutherford and Keemo Paul to catapult the home team to 156 for six in their allocated 20 overs — after they chose to bat in the contest at Guyana National Stadium.

Tahir followed up with a spell of 3-12 from his allotted four overs, and fellow leg-spinner Qais Ahmad of Afghanistan and Paul grabbed two wickets apiece to put the skids on the Tallawahs batting and send them sliding to 79 all out in 16.3 overs.

It was the ninth-straight win in the competition for the Warriors and condemned the Tallawahs to their eighth defeat of the season, to finish their schedule of matches with just two wins, four points and in the basement of the tournament standings.

Tallawahs lost Chris Gayle, when Green bowled him with the first ball of the run chase, and Tahir set them back further, when he had Chadwick Walton caught inside the long-on boundary to leave the visitors 16 for two.

Glenn Phillips and Liton Das attempted a recovery but it all unravelled in the second half of the innings, as the Tallawahs lost their last seven wickets for 35 in 42 balls.

Phillips was caught at long-on for 21 in the 10th over, and Trevon Griffith, Dwayne Smith, Imran Khan and Das fell between the 13th and 15th overs to knock the wind out of the Tallawahs’ sails.

A win for the Warriors had looked distant, after they lost four wickets in four balls, and both Windies international Oshane Thomas and fellow pacer Derval Green were on hat-tricks at the same time.

Earlier, Thomas bowled Brandon King for one with the fifth ball of the match, and West Indies batsman Shimron Hetmyer was caught behind for a first-ball duck off the next delivery.

Green, swinging prodigiously, bowled Hemraj for two with the first delivery of the next over, and pinned Windies batsman Nicholas Pooran lbw for a first-ball duck.

Rutherford was fortunate when he survived a huge lbw shout to what could have been the hat-trick ball for Green, which pitched just outside leg stump.

But he put his head down, and with Malik, dug the Warriors out of the deep hole with a fifth-wicket stand of 82 before he was caught at long-off from the bowling of veteran leg-spinner Imran Khan in the 13th over.

Afghanistan left-arm Chinaman Zakir Khan bowled South African Chris Green for two in the following over to leave the Warriors 90 for five, but that was Malik’s cue to burst into life as he suddenly started to find the boundary and scored 38 of the 56 the hosts piled on in the closing five overs of the innings.

A whopping 26 of those runs for Malik came in the 19th over, as Thomas had his figures mangled as his spell ended.

The round robin stage of the competition was scheduled to conclude yesterday when Warriors faced Trinbago Knight Riders at this venue, looking to finish with a perfect 10-0 record.