Two sides who lost their opening match of the CPL 2021 season meet in the second half of the Friday double header in St Kitts as the Barbados Royals take on the defending champions Trinbago Knight Riders in what is immediately a big game for both sides.
Although four of the six teams qualify for the semi-finals, with just 10 group matches no team will want to open up their campaign with two straight defeats so both sides will be desperate to win this game and kick their season into life.
Barbados Tridents
I don’t think there will be any panic from the Barbados Tridents after one defeat, especially given that they started so well against the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots. One partnership took the game away from them so they are going to need to manage the second part of their bowling innings a lot better going through the tournament but there were certainly some positives to take from the defeat even if there are a few things to work on.
The big positive is that Oshane Thomas looked to have an excellent rhythm. He wasn’t the only one with the ball for the Royals as the likes of Kyle Mayers and Jason Holder both bowled well too. The concern would be their batting effort but it shouldn’t take long for the likes of Glenn Phillips and Johnson Charles to come good. They will need to though because they do look a genuine batsman light unless an all-rounder catches fire with the bat.
Trinbago Knight Riders
It might just be that the Trinbago Knight Riders lost to one of the best teams in the tournament when they slipped up against the Guyana Amazon Warriors but whether that was the case or not they will want to offer up a distinct improvement here. They weren’t too bad with the ball, although I think there is more to come from them in that department, but the improvement has to come with the bat where they never got going at all.
That is a surprise because one of the things which has made the Knight Riders so feared and so successful is the exciting starts they get off to with the bat and if they do stumble they have a couple of clever players to get the innings back on track before a launch at the end. They neither got going against Guyana, recovered or went again at the end and really lost quite tamely. You would think there is too much quality in the batting unit to fail twice though.
Special Offer
Sign up for a Boylesports account to get up to £25 in free bets! Perfect offer for this league! Click the image below for this great offer! New accounts only. 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Aware.
Key Men
Oshane Thomas looked fantastic with his rhythm and his pace and bounce on Thursday night and if he can get stuck into this Trinbago Knight Riders top order and get the mental cogs whirling in the middle order it might offer an opening for the Barbados Royals.
We didn’t see nearly enough from the Trinbago Knight Riders’ captain Kieron Pollard in the first game. He doesn’t fail too often in this competition though so he’ll be eager to put that right. This ground isn’t big enough for him if he gets going.
Betting
This isn’t a match I want to be involved in the match winner in. I say that for a couple of reasons. The first of those is because there is a little bit of pressure on the two teams here given that they lost their opening match. The other is because if the dew comes this ground could be impossible to defend so I wouldn’t want to back a side and then see that they are batting first and you are inconvenienced before it begins.
I do expect to see some sixes though. Sixes flowed in the first innings of the earlier match and the pitch looks much better than the one which was used on Thursday. The pace and bounce this Barbados Royals attack gets is good for taking wickets but the batsmen won’t mind that because even miscues will go for six if they get enough of it. Barbados didn’t bat brilliantly well on Thursday night but they still slapped six sixes and that was without Phillips, Charles, Mayers or Holder hitting any. There is plenty of six hitting in these two sides so I like over 13.5 sixes here.
Tips
Back Over 13.5 sixes for a 4/10 stake at 1.73 with Bet365
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2021
