The CPL 2022 season continues with another double header on Sunday and with the rain looking to have left the Basseterre region of St Kitts and Nevis we can hopefully crack on with the action as the Barbados Royals take on the St Lucia Kings.
These two sides have played one match apiece in the competition and have had very different outcomes in those games. Barbados strolled past the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots while the St Lucia Kings were beaten by the Trinbago Knight Riders.
Barbados Royals
After what was no getting away from it a very ordinary campaign for the Barbados Royals last term, the Barbados Royals made a positive start to the new season when they cruised past the defending champions St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in their first match and with Quinton de Kock having had time to arrive and settle in since that last match there is a chance that the Royals go into this one looing even stronger than they did in that opening game.
The positive for the Royals was that they batted well. I think overall that was the thing which let them down last season. There are concerns over the makeup of their bowling attack but later in the competition Mujeeb will arrive which will give them another tasty spin option so if the Royals can keep on winning without him then his impact when he has finished his Asia Cup duties will be felt even more. Barbados need to show that first performance was the norm now rather than the anomaly.
St Lucia Kings
The St Lucia Kings were fairly comfortably beaten by the Trinbago Knight Riders in their opening match but we probably shouldn’t judge them too harshly on that. It might well be that the Knight Riders dominate this competition so getting them out of the way first is probably no bad thing for the losing finalists of last season. The other reason why judging them this early might not be the shrewdest move is because since that opening game the likes of Faf du Plessis, David Wiese and Tim David have arrived.
Those three will undoubtedly strengthen the Kings, especially the latter two who will give them some batting depth which will allow those at the top of the innings the freedom to play a little more expensively which you generally need to do to be competitive in this competition. Wiese will also provide a bowling option which maybe the Kings were without in that first game. In many ways their season begins here so this is a big match for St Lucia.
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Key Players
Kyle Mayers started his tournament where he left off in the ODIs for West Indies with a fluent innings where he showed he has plenty of international class. He didn’t bowl in the opening match but that part of his game will be utilised as the event goes on too.
Tim David didn’t really light up The Hundred until it was too late but having been called into the Australia squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup he will be looking to fill his boots here and show exactly why he is in that role.
Betting
I’m a little surprised that the St Lucia Kings are the outsiders for this match. Admittedly the Barbados Royals won well in their opening match but the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots haven’t exactly franked the form of that win and we can’t ignore the two previous seasons where they have been pretty average and picked up just six wins in the 20 matches they have played. I think they could be flattered by that win and I think the Kings are the ones to be on here.
There is a good chance that the Kings lost to the best team in the competition in their opening match and when you consider they were without four big overseas players for that outing they are only going to get stronger. It wasn’t like they were destroyed in that game against Trinbago anyway. They only got edged out in the end but with plenty more batting power and depth available to them here as well as another solid bowling option I think the 6/5 on St Lucia here is far too big.
Tips
Back St Lucia Kings to beat Barbados Royals for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with William Hill
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