We are reaching the business end of the Caribbean Premier League with the regular phase of the CPL 2021 season very much in the second half of the campaign. The tournament continues with a double header of action on Thursday which begins with the Trinbago Knight Riders taking on the Barbados Royals.
The Knight Riders have propelled themselves into the top four as they bid to make a successful defence of their title but despite a win on Tuesday, the Barbados Royals still sit bottom of the table with three matches left.
Trinbago Knight Riders
The Trinbago Knight Riders started their season quite inauspiciously but they have won three out of their last four matches, and only lost the other one on a Super Over, so they look to be finding their mojo at the right time. It has been said many a time but only because it is true that it doesn’t matter how you fare at the beginning of the tournament, it is all about how you end it and making sure that you are playing your best cricket towards the end of the competition and it appears that is what the Knight Riders are doing.
The big difference from the start of the tournament to now is that their batting looks a lot more solid and reliable and importantly their big hitters such as Lendl Simmons, Kieron Pollard and Darren Bravo are all finding form. When the batting fires the Knight Riders are a formidable outfit because their bowling is good at the best of times let alone on these pitches which are tiring more and more by the day. Their attack is beginning to really come to the boil.
Barbados Royals
It has been a wretched campaign overall for the Barbados Royals overall but they have managed to get themselves a win which has seen them hang onto the coattails of the teams above them. They are going to need to finish the regular season strongly if they are going to be around for the knockout stages but to be fair to them they looked pretty good in that win over the Guyana Amazon Warriors last time out so they have something to build from.
It was the first time in the tournament that you felt there was a plan to their batting and that everyone knew what was expected of them. As a result they got off to a good start and that platform allowed their bigger players down the order to express themselves and flourish and the result was that they put up a very daunting 180. In turn that meant they could extract some scoreboard pressure and they were able to canter to victory.
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Key Men
Barbados Royals haven’t played spin very well in this tournament so Akeal Hosein could well be a key player, especially with the pitch always taking turn in these day games. He has been in good form and can also smack it with the bat if needs be.
The move to shove Kyle Mayers up to open the batting in the last match worked perfectly for the Barbados Royals. He isn’t necessarily known for attacking the spinners though so he’ll need to raise his game again to be effective but if he can do that we’ve seen what the Royals can do with the platform he provides.
Betting
These two sides are a little too inconsistent for my liking so I’m not going to get involved in the match winner. If you forced me I’d wager the Trinbago Knight Riders will come out on top but they are plenty short enough considering I don’t have a huge amount of confidence in them. That makes me head towards the side markets for a punt on this opening game of the day. It is the player performance which grabs my attention.
That belongs to Kieron Pollard who has a very low looking line at 28.5 for a player of his standards. He came in with his side in a spot of bother in the first match between these two and then blitzed 58 off 30 balls. He hasn’t been bowling as much in this tournament as we are accustomed to him seeing but I fancy in these sluggish daytime conditions he’ll bowl an over or two here and of course he’s always in the key fielding positions so catches are always in the game. There is every chance he will cover this with the bat but given that he has supporting scoring methods I’m happy to play the over here.
Tips
Back K.Pollard’s Performance – Over 28.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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