The third day of action at CPL 2021 is yet another one which contains a double header as the Caribbean Premier League season continues on Saturday. The first match of the two sees two teams who won their opening match meeting when the Guyana Amazon Warriors take on the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots.
Given that both these teams won their opening match top spot is at stake for the team that comes out on top here and although we are still fairly early in the competition we saw last year what can happen when a team hits the front early and gathers confidence.
Guyana Amazon Warriors
The Guyana Amazon Warriors could barely have produced a better performance in their opening match. If you were being critical of them then you would say that their top order could bring more to the party but I don’t think the pitch was the easiest first up in that first game. What they didn’t do was keep going and collapse in a heap. They played smart and batters who were in at the end were able to get them up to a score which they were able to defend quite comfortably.
The fact it was the Trinbago Knight Riders, the defending champions, they beat will only give them even more confidence. The one thing you want from one of these franchise tournaments is your bowlers to hit the ground running so the fact that both overseas bowlers delivered strong performances and a couple of home bowlers stood up and were counted bodes very well. There will be natural improvement from the Amazon Warriors which bodes well too.
St Kitts and Nevis Patriots
I always think there is more pressure on the home sides in these tournaments which have to be played at the one venue and that is the case with the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots here. In the first 10 overs of their batting innings against the Barbados Royals it looked like that pressure and scrutiny was getting to them but once they had established a partnership they soon pressed on and in the end posted a very challenging score.
That was encouraging because when you looked at the Patriots team you would suggest that their bowling is probably their strength overall, aside from the top three which look brutal in all fairness. Those top order players never came off and they still put up a very competitive total. They’re too good to not fire all the time so when they do the Patriots are entitled to be very tough to beat. They will hope that is here to set them up nicely for the tournament.
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Key Men
Shimron Hetmyer showed a lot of maturity in his innings in the first match to get the Guyana Amazon Warriors up to the sort of total which they could defend. He didn’t get much support so he will hope for more of that but he tends to maintain form for a while.
Dwayne Bravo was excellent with the bat in the first game for the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots but didn’t back that up with the ball. He’ll be looking to put the complete all-round performance together in this match and will lead in style if he does so.
Betting
These two sides both looked pretty good in their first games so I’m not really sure I want to back either of them to win the match in truth. My gut feeling is that the Guyana Amazon Warriors might well win this match but I’m in no rush to take on Evin Lewis, Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo et al just yet even if a couple of them did struggle to get going in the opening match. I’ll head to the side markets for a bet on this game where there is a player performance I like the look of.
That belongs to Fabian Allen who contributed in all three scoring facets in the opening match and even though you wouldn’t say he made a huge impression with any of them he still ended up with a total of 49 points so his target for this match of 31.5 doesn’t look nearly enough. Allen has turned himself into a reliable, clean hitter down the order and his left arm spin is very handy indeed. He is probably the best fielder in Caribbean cricket as well so he’ll always be in the key positions so I expect him to eclipse that target either with a good game with bat or ball or an average one with both.
Tips
Back F.Allen’s Performance – Over 31.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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