Man-of-the-Match Mahendra Nagamootoo, who took five for 15, speaks during the post-match ceremony following their semi-final victory over Grenada in the Stanford 20/20 cricket tournament at the Stanford Cricket Ground, Antigua, on Thursday. - Dellmar

ST JOHN'S, Antigua (CMC):

Behind a superb spell of bowling from leg-spinner Mahendra Nagamotoo and clever batting from the top order, Guyana beat Grenada by six wickets to advance to the final of the Stanford 20/20 Cricket Tournament on Thursday night.

Playing at the Stanford Cricket Ground, the Guyanese restricted the 'Spice Boys' to 158 for eight in their 20 overs and then powered to 160 for four off 18.2 overs, to win with 10 balls to spare.

WHO'S NEXT

They were awaiting the winner of yesterday's other semi-final between Nevis and Trinidad and Tobago to see who will be their opponents in tomorrow's grand final, where the top purse is US$1 million.

Nagamootoo entered at the mid-way point of the innings after Grenada had racked up 86 for the first wicket and he immediately put a halt to the free-scoring.

He ended with five wickets for 15 runs off his four overs to pocket the Man-of-the-Match cheque of US$25,000.

The strong start for Grenada was provided by the powerful opening pair of Andre Fletcher, who blasted 50 off just 31 balls with five fours and two sixes, and Clevron Antoine, who added 30 off just 22 balls.

Both fell to the steady off-spin of Narsingh Deonarine in the space of several balls and the innings suddenly lost momentum.

Then in stepped Nagamootoo, a clever leg-spinner who has taken over 350 wickets in regional cricket in a career spanning 12 years. He was simply too good for the Windward Islands as he offered little to hit as the batsmen came after him.

His biggest wicket was that of skipper Rawl Lewis, who made 36 from 30 balls, before being caught at mid-wicket by Deonarine looking to push the score along.

After this, the innings meandered and fell about 20 runs short of the projected total.

Asked to score at eight an over, Guyana's experienced batsmen laid the foundation and at the end, the little known Imran Khan smashed two towering sixes in his 21 from 10 balls to send the estimated 3,000 Guyana fans into a frenzy.

With him at the end was Deonarine, who showed his maturity in 23 not out as the two shared an unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 32.

Before this, opener Lennox Cush opened his shoulders to crack 49 from 42 balls and his massive six over extra cover earned him the Play-of the-Match award of US$10,000.

Cush added 57 for the first wicket with Travis Dowlin (19) as they set the tone for the run chase.

Skipper Ramnaresh Sarwan fell for eight, but left-hander Esuan Crandon banged 17 from nine balls to keep his side in the hunt on another action-filled night.