The Caribbean Premier League title will be won on Sunday night when the CPL 2024 season comes to a close as the St Lucia Kings go up against the defending champions Guyana Amazon Warriors in the final of the competition.
These two topped the table in the regular campaign and have already met in the finals with the St Lucia Kings coming out on top in Qualifier 1. Guyana will be out for revenge in this match as they look to make a successful defence of the title.
St Lucia Kings
The St Lucia Kings eventually had to settle for second place in the regular season but they took full advantage of having the pressure free match in the playoffs to make it through to the final at the first time of asking and now they will be looking for a repeat performance and result in this final to secure the trophy for the first time. The Kings have been to two previous finals in this competition but come up short on both occasions so they will be eager to get the job done this time around.
They look to have an excellent chance of doing that too. Their opening pair have got them off to decent starts which has allowed the middle order to get themselves in before they contribute to the scoring, which is when they are at their best. The Kings also have a number of bowling options at their disposal which means that they should be able to get the job done regardless of what conditions they encounter so if history doesn’t weigh on their shoulders, St Lucia have every chance here.
Guyana Amazon Warriors
The Guyana Amazon Warriors have got their title defence down to the final hurdle despite having to go the scenic route to get to this concluding match. The beauty of them finishing top of the table in the regular season was that they got two chances to make this title game and although they wouldn’t have wanted to need both attempts they have made it here and can now give their all on home soil to attempt to get the job done once again.
Guyana will probably feel that they might have got the job done in the qualifier had the rain not come when it did. They were behind the game but it wasn’t significant enough for the result to be a foregone conclusion. To their credit, they put that disappointment behind them to win the second qualifier where their bowling came on strong at the end of the innings and set up what quickly became a routine run chase. If they start well with the bat here they will be hard to beat.
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Key Players
Johnson Charles exploded into life in the qualifier between these two and while he didn’t put the match completely beyond Guyana, he put the St Lucia Kings in the sort of position which they were able to control the game from and his side will hope for similar here too.
I said before the second qualifier that Rahmanullah Gurbaz is the pacesetter for the Guyana Amazon Warriors’ batting effort and he duly blasted 50 in no time to have them on their way. A significant innings from him here would make controlling the game a lot easier for the defending champions.
Betting
The Guyana Amazon Warriors won both of the regular season meetings between these two and they did it with a fair bit to spare. They were behind in the qualifier when the rain came but it wasn’t set in stone that they would have been beaten so I think the defending champions are the ones to be on here. I do think when you look at the two sides they are the better team and they have the luxury of having won the title with the majority of these players last season, whereas the St Lucia Kings have a number of players who lost out in both finals they played.
The big issue that I have with the St Lucia Kings is that they have an all-rounder or two too many. That is fine when their opening pair catch fire and get them off to a decent start but they can soon find wickets falling regularly and then they are in trouble. Guyana don’t have an all-rounder in their top order unless they decide to change their batting order but have enough in the engine room to control the game. There are more specialists in this Guyana side which is why they won both regular season matches. I think they win this one too.
Tips
Back Guyana Amazon Warriors to beat St Lucia Kings for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Coral
