The second part of the Caribbean Premier League double header on Tuesday is a massive one for the Barbados Royals as they bid to revive a flagging CPL 2021 campaign. They take on the Guyana Amazon Warriors in a must win game for them.
The Amazon Warriors head into the match knowing defeat doesn’t kill them here but they can put a bit of ground between themselves and the chasers in the race for the top four so this is a key game in the season you feel.
Guyana Amazon Warriors
Familiarity is never a bad thing in cricket and the Guyana Amazon Warriors will have that here because they played the Barbados Royals in their last match. They needed to perform in that as well so it is to their credit that they did exactly that. There was never really a stage in the contest when you didn’t think they were well on top but when they had the bat in the hand they just highlighted that emphatically and put an exclamation mark on it.
It was actually that batting which will have given the Amazon Warriors plenty of confidence moving forward. That was the area of their game which was struggling over the first half of the season so if they can start to get that in full working order then the perennial bridesmaids of this competition could be relevant come the knockout stages. I say that because their bowling has never really been an issue at any stage this term.
Barbados Royals
I feared we would get to the stage where the Barbados Royals would panic and look for new combinations after their tough loss to the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in the match prior to their meeting with the Guyana Amazon Warriors last time out. That is exactly what happened and they were beaten even more emphatically than they had been before. There are clearly issues within this Barbados setup and I suspect it stems from a lack of top quality bowling options.
The one thing you can’t afford to do in this tournament is struggle at the death. There are too many power hitters down the order who can punish sides who don’t have it right at the death. In finding that out the hard way, Jason Holder went with some of his lesser options up front in the first game against Guyana and paid the price for that too. The other problem the Royals have is they are just not maximising their batting innings. They get into good positions but nobody goes on and launches them up to a standout total.
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Key Men
Chandrapaul Hemraj had a match to remember against the Royals last time and the confidence his century will have given him can’t be underplayed. Not only is he going to be crucial with the bat here but his early spin over could yield the desired results too.
In six matches there have only been three scores of 50 or more from the Barbados Royals batsmen and none of those have come from Johnson Charles who has a top score of 30. Barbados need more output from him and quickly if they are to be relevant for this match.
Betting
The Guyana Amazon Warriors had so much in hand on Sunday that you’ve got to think they are good things in this second meeting between the two sides. Had the Amazon Warriors’ batting continued to struggle then maybe I wouldn’t be expecting the sort of convincing win that I am expecting from them. That was the only thing that was missing from the Guyana game but generally when one starts finding form, especially when it is up at the top of the order, they all see the pressure valve release and everyone catches fire.
Barbados Royals have two big problems to me here. The main one is that their bowling at the death can best be described as ordinary. The other problem they have is they are not finishing innings off particularly well with the bat in hand. That therefore means that either they don’t reach an above par total or they can be on course to chase and collapse in a heap. However it happens, there is no sign of it stopping and now that they have Guyana have found form with the bat they are just a terrible matchup for Barbados. I’ll take Guyana to cover the handicap here.
Tips
Back Guyana Amazon Warriors (-3.5wickets/10.5runs) to beat Barbados Royals for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Bet365
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