The second half of the double header of action in the Caribbean Premier League on Thursday sees the Barbados Royals opening their CPL 2022 campaign when they go up against the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots.
The Patriots are the defending champions but got their title defence off to a poor start on Wednesday evening and will be out to make amends here. Barbados have won this title before and a win here will set them on their way nicely.
Barbados Royals
While the Barbados Royals have won this title in the past, they haven’t impressed in recent times, finishing bottom of the table with just three victories from their 10 outings last season. It goes without saying that they will be looking for much more this term and it might just be that the competition moving around the islands where pitches should remain fresher for longer will suit Barbados as they appear to be a little seam heavy with the ball.
The immediate problem they have in this match is they will be without their top two batters from last year. They have been replaced but Quinton de Kock won’t be featuring in this match and it remains to be seen whether David Miller arrived in time too. With Mujeeb away at the Asia Cup the Royals are not going to be as strong as they would want so they are going to need their local home players to stand up and be counted here. Barbados did have a positive 6ixty showing though which was something.
St Kitts and Nevis Patriots
The St Kitts and Nevis Patriots were quite ordinary in their opening match. Usually you would suggest that they would have needed the run but that can’t have been the case with them having competed in the 6ixty last week. There is no excuse for their heavy hitters not to be up to speed so that opening game come as a real shock. It wasn’t like they lost to a team who are expected to be anything special this season either so the champions have something to prove here.
The real problem for the Patriots was that they were found wanting with both the bat and the ball. Often when a team has a bad day they are bad with one but there was positives with the other. St Kitts and Nevis were terrible with both and they haven’t had a lot of time to recover and put things right either. It remains to be seen whether they have the bowling to do damage here until Wanindu Hasaranga arrives. They certainly have the batting but need to show it.
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Key Players
Jason Holder is rarely not a key player in the teams that he plays in because he bowls in the moments that matter and he also bats strongly in the middle order. With one or two Barbados players yet to arrive he is a key man here.
Sherfane Rutherford was the only batter who looked in any way fluent for the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in the opening game and they will need him to repeat that form while the others are getting up to speed.
Betting
This is another match which isn’t the easiest to bet on because once again we don’t know quite how strong one of the teams in it will be but we do know that the pitch is being used for the third time and hasn’t really played that well in the opening matches of the tournament. There has certainly been something in it for the spinners which makes me think that the performance line of Rakheem Cornwall is a little on the low side at 23.5.
Barbados Royals look a little light in the spin department so I’m fairly confident Cornwall will bowl, not least because there are three left-handers in the top five of the Patriots. Cornwall was hitting the ball pretty cleanly in the 6ixty last week so he should be in decent nick with the bat and we saw on Wednesday evening that there are no demons in this St Kitts and Nevis attack. That makes me think he can cover this line with the bat but with the option of the ball too it is definitely coverable.
Tips
Back R.Cornwall’s Performance – Over 23.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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