Warner shock at umpire howler

St Lucia captain Kieron Pollard has warned poor umpiring threatens to undermine the Caribbean Premier League after teammate David Warner was victim of a howler that helped condemn the Stars to a 13th consecutive defeat.

Warner was left stunned, and now faces a possible sanction for dissent, after being given out leg before in St Lucia's narrow three-run defeat by the Guyana Amazon Warriors.

Warner, on 11, had attempted to reverse sweep a delivery from Guyana's Imran Tahir delivery that was angling wide of the left-hander's off-stump but mis-timed the stroke. Tahir appealed briefly, and looked to have given up on the shout, just as umpire Nigel Duguid raised his finger.

That sparked Tahir's trademark overzealous celebration as he ran out towards the square boundary, while Warner appeared to mouth "What?" with palms upraised and looking around in bewilderment.

Warner had a point: replays showed the Australian had top-edged the ball into his gloves. Not only had it struck the bat and gloves but was on a trajectory that would have taken it wide of the stumps.

St Lucia's plight took a turn for the worse later in the over when Tahir struck again, a wrong'un hitting Andre Fletcher in front to give Dugaid a much more straightforward decision.

St Lucia recovered, and were well positioned at 2-113 in pursuit of Guyana's 142, but a three-wicket burst by Rayad Emrit left them too much to do in the final overs with Afghan teenager Qais Ahmad unable to club the final ball for the boundary needed to force a Super Over.

St Lucia captain Pollard confirmed he had spoken to umpries about the officiating, and said the burgeoning league deserved better.

"Today was a bit unfortunate, as I told the officials," Pollard said in the post-match interview. "It's no secret.

"In tournaments like these and for teams like us who are looking to scrap for a win, these sort of decisions tend to demoralise the players in the dressing room.

"This is franchise and international cricket and some glaring mistakes are being made. It's going to cost franchises."

The same umpire was involved in another controversial decision earlier in the match when Guyana batsman Luke Ronchi was given out lbw to a ball from left-arm spinner Mark Chapman that appeared to be heading well down the leg side. 

St Lucia have now lost 13 consecutive matches since ditching the Zouks name last season.

The Stars were thrashed by Trinbago Knight Riders to the tune of 100 runs in this season's opening game, with Warner scoring 9 and dropping a catch, but Pollard backed the Australian to find form.

"David will accept that (decision), he will move on and I'm looking forward to him scoring some runs," Pollard added.

"We have another eight games to play and if he gets off he's going to win you three of those eight games all by himself.

"I'm not particularly worried about it, but it's just a matter for us to stick together.

"In this game I've seen some positives from the last game and we're going to work really hard as a team and as a management to get it right."

In Sunday's other match, the St Kitts & Nevis Patriots beat Trinbago by 42 runs.

Patriots wicketkeeper Devon Thomas smashed 58 from 34 and Carlos Brathwaite hit five sexes in a 15-ball 41, while Australian Ben Cutting added 25 from 18 to help St Kitts to 7-203.

Trinbago opener Chris Lynn was bowled by Nepalese leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane for 6 and 'Bash Brother' Brendon McCullum holed out of Cutting as the home side failed to get going in the run chase.