There are two double header match days of league action left in the Caribbean Premier League with the first of those coming on Saturday. The day gets underway with a clash between two sides who know they’ll be competing in the knockout stages next week when the Trinbago Knight Riders take on the St Lucia Zouks.
The Knight Riders need just one point from their two matches this weekend to ensure they finish top of the table whereas the Zouks are looking for two points to guarantee that they will finish second or third and take on Guyana in the semi-final.
Trinbago Knight Riders
We are eight games in and the Trinbago Knight Riders are still on course for the perfect campaign. They have won all eight matches that they have played and now must surely have their sights set on achieving something no team has ever done before in this competition – win every match in the season. You would have to say there is every chance they could do that because sometimes teams on winning runs like this don’t get tested and are found wanting when they do. Trinbago have been tested and they’ve still come through.
The really worrying thing for the rest of the competition is that the Knight Riders have rested and rotated their side in the last couple of matches and they still haven’t shown any signs of slowing down. With matches in successive days over the weekend ahead of the semi-finals on Tuesday you would think Trinbago will continue to utilise all members of their squad as they look to get the balance between form and freshness just right.
St Lucia Zouks
The St Lucia Zouks will be delighted to have already secured their semi-final spot, especially as when the season began they were not expected to be in the last four, but their form is just dropping a little too much and that is a concern. Their problem has quite clearly been their batting. At first I thought it was the terrible wickets at the Queens Park Oval but now I think there is a deeper concern, primarily significant struggles against spin.
That is going to need to be worked on if they are going to make it deep in the knockout stages. The problem they have with the bat is that the players who were going so well for them at the start of the season have come off the top of their form. With one or two elderly or out of shape players they are unable to rotate the strike throughout the innings so if they can’t get their big shots away they can easily get themselves into a few problems.
Special Offer
Opt in and place 5 accumulators either in a Boylesports shop or online and get an acca free! Click the image below to bet. ALL CUSTOMERS! 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Aware.
Key Men
It isn’t easy to pick one man out from the Trinbago Knight Riders because they are all capable of winning matches on their own with special performances but Lendl Simmons generally keeps going big when he finds form and that will be his aim here.
St Lucia Zouks need a platform to build from with the bat so it is important for them that Rakheem Cornwall gets some big shots away early. If he continues to drink up the strike without getting the scoreboard moving it could be a long game for the Zouks.
Betting
I’m a little surprised we can get 4/5 about the Trinbago Knight Riders hitting the most sixes in this match. The St Lucia Zouks have only put up scores of 111 or less in their last four innings, albeit one of those came in 14.4 overs as they were only chasing 111 but they did it four down so this isn’t a top order that is firing on all cylinders and when you lose early wickets to the Knight Riders you have problems because they are hard to get away later in the innings.
This is a St Lucia side who aren’t batting well to put it simply whereas the opposite can be said of the Knight Riders. Three times this season Trinbago have put up scores of 174 or more which is far beyond what anyone else in the tournament have offered. Their top seven all have the capabilities of clearing the ropes and in the main they have all had significant innings in the tournament to date. The big hitters keep coming in this Trinbago side whereas they either run out quickly for St Lucia or those who are deeper in the order aren’t in the best form.
Tips
WON – Back Trinbago Knight Riders Most 6s for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with William Hill
Back them here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2020
