The second part of the double header of action in the Caribbean Premier League on Thursday is a repeat of the opening game of the tournament as the Guyana Amazon Warriors take on the table toppers Trinbago Knight Riders.
This has suddenly become a big match for the Amazon Warriors who find themselves with a negative record halfway through their campaign, a ledger they could do with evening out here. There are no such concerns for the Knight Riders who remain unbeaten.
Guyana Amazon Warriors
The Guyana Amazon Warriors go into this match off the back of two defeats which should really have been three but somehow they burgled a win in their opening encounter over the Jamaica Tallawahs even though they only put up 118 runs on that occasion. That lack of runs was not restricted to just that contest as since then they have made 134/8 and 108/9 in their two outings since then. It goes without saying that they need a huge improvement on that if they are to be competitive again.
Considering they have had nothing to work with in recent times you have to give a lot of credit to the Guyana bowlers. They have rescued one match from nowhere and did a decent effort in the two recent defeats but with all the best will in the world there is only so much their attack can do. The concern with their bowling is that although it has gone well, their best two displays have come against the Jamaica Tallawahs who are little short of a mess right now, so they could be overrated on that.
Trinbago Knight Riders
If the Guyana Amazon Warriors are under a bit of pressure going into this match, the Trinbago Knight Riders certainly aren’t. Everything is going nicely for them. They have played four and won the lot and in truth they haven’t been pushed close in any of them. I would guess moving forward they would like a test or two before the end of the regular season to prime them for the play-offs, but at this stage they will be content with blow sides away.
The thing which has impressed with the Knight Riders so far in this tournament has been the speed in which they have assessed the conditions and adjusted their game accordingly. It helps that they have bowlers for all conditions and a flexible batting line up but that quality of thinking on their feet shouldn’t be underestimated. They are the only side in the competition whose batting and bowling are both firing at the minute so they are the team to beat.
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Key Men
We’ve seen in the earlier match that the wicket is taking plenty of spin so Imran Tahir is going to need to come to the party in a big way for the Guyana Amazon Warriors. If Trinbago go unscathed through his four overs Guyana are in trouble.
With that in mind, Fawad Ahmed is likely to be a key man for the Trinbago Knight Riders. He hasn’t really lit the tournament up with his leg spin in terms of wickets yet but he hasn’t gone for more than 26 in a spell either. This pitch should see him much more threatening from a wicket point of view.
Betting
While the wicket doesn’t look the greatest we shouldn’t ignore the potential for sixes on this ground. In the first five matches here at the Queens Park Oval the highest score we have seen is 152/4 but we have not lacked for sixes. We’ve seen 20 in the first game where that 152/4 was a winning score, seven in the second between the two out of form batting teams that scored 108/9 and 113/5, seven in a shortened match where 111/6 played 72/4, 15 in a game with scores of 148/7 and 112/9 and in the first innings of the opening game on Thursday we saw six in a score of 110/9.
The point of all that is to highlight that we don’t need big scores to get the sixes flowing here. In fact with the poor drainage in the outfield it is pretty much one or six on this ground so the 11.5 line that has been thrown up here might just be slightly on the low side. We have two batting line ups full of players who can hit a long ball who bat deep enough to keep going if they lose early wickets while the absence of Sunil Narine makes the Trinbago attack a little easier to hit when you consider Guyana’s batting is packed with left-handers. The wicket might not be the greatest but these two combined for 14 sixes in a rain reduced first game. I’d be surprised if there isn’t another dozen here.
Tips
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