The opening match of the CPL 2020 season takes place on Tuesday afternoon when the ‘hosts’ Trinbago Knight Riders take on the Guyana Amazon Warriors in a clash which should get the tournament off to an excellent start.
These are two of the better sides in the competition, one who has tasted the success of winning it three times and the other who has been beaten in the final on no fewer than five occasions. On that basis we might well be seeing this again come the end of the campaign.
Trinbago Knight Riders
The Trinbago Knight Riders will be disappointed that for all their success in this tournament they were unable to make the final last season. That will give them a motivation heading into this campaign and it will be interesting to see the level of performance that they put in here. I suspect all teams in this competition will be rusty to begin with but Trinbago upset a number of sides by practicing outside of the bubble so they might have an edge.
One thing the Trinbago outfit don’t lack for is spinners and it really can’t be underplayed just how important that factor is going to be over the course of this competition. The other thing they don’t lack for is power in their batting line up but they are not just all about brute force, there are a couple of players in their line up who have the capabilities to knock the ball around if they get into any sort of trouble at any point.
Guyana Amazon Warriors
The best team in the competition last season was the Guyana Amazon Warriors and while they couldn’t take that to get over the line in the final, they did everything but win the tournament and that fifth loss in the final should have ensured the fuel in their fire is going strong for this campaign. They don’t look as strong on paper this term but that doesn’t mean that they don’t have enough match winners to be competitive again.
There is some real quality in the batting department of this Amazon Warriors side and this early in the competition you would think they would get the pitch they need to go well here. That said there is never much in the pitch here so it might well come down to their bowling attack to deliver the goods if they are going to open their season with a win. Fortunately they are well stocked in that department as well.
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Key Men
You’ve got to think that in a day game there is going to be enough in this wicket for the batsmen, especially as there is a second game on the ground later in the day so Lendl Simmons feels like a key player for the Trinbago Knight Riders.
All eyes will be on the leading run scorer of 2019 in Brandon King for the Guyana Amazon Warriors. The West Indies limited overs international will be eager to start his tournament in a similar way to how the previous one finished and set a marker down.
Betting
It might be that the wicket plays its best for the batsmen in these day games but on the flip side of that it could also be that the bowlers have the easier time of it as well because there won’t be no dew around and they will be able to grip the ball a lot better so rather than the evening matches when there could be an element of a lottery nature about proceedings, I think in the day games the better teams are more likely to come out on top.
There probably isn’t a huge amount between these two sides but the fact that Fawad Ahmed has come over from the St Lucia Zouks to pair up with Sunil Narine and Khary Pierre for the Trinbago Knight Riders could just give them the edge here. The Knight Riders always have the batting covered and with quality spinners they will fancy their chances here. Shoaib Malik is going to be a big miss for the Amazon Warriors and when you throw in that Trinbago have been practicing ahead of the tournament there is enough in their favour to side with them here.
Tips
Back Trinbago Knight Riders to beat Guyana Amazon Warriors for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with BetVictor
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