The CPL 2022 season moves to the Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad for the first of four matches at the venue on Tuesday night when we have a bottom against top clash as the Trinbago Knight Riders take on the Barbados Royals.
The Trinbago Knight Riders were the pre-season favourites to win the title but one win in their four matches to date is not the record they will have been looking for. Barbados are in a great place. They have played five and won the lot and one more victory is usually enough to make the last four.
Trinbago Knight Riders
It looked like the Trinbago Knight Riders had assembled one of the best squads in CPL history and while that remains the case on paper, on grass where it all matters that hasn’t been the case and they need to use the four upcoming matches on home soil profitably if they are to get back into the competition. Home advantage is usually a big thing and if Trinbago are to have any chance of winning this title you’ve got to think they need three wins from this four-match home block.
The one thing they are going to need is for their batters to show up to the party. They won their opening match when they made hard work of chasing down 143/9 and since then they have been 51/7 after eight overs when the rain came against this opposition and then restricted to 119/8 by the Jamaica Tallawahs. A team containing Sunil Narine, Colin Munro, Nicholas Pooran, Kieron Pollard and Andre Russell and others shouldn’t be struggling that much with the bat.
Barbados Royals
This has been a seriously good turnaround for the Barbados Royals. After just three wins last season they have the chance to double that tally inside six matches this time around. They have taken advantage of momentum which you so often have to do in this tournament and while they were fortunate with their first three wins coming in rain affected contests, there has been nothing fluky about their last two wins and right now they look the team to beat in this competition.
The Royals have got better the longer their season has gone on and what I like about them is their entire top five have delivered the goods regularly throughout the competition. The other thing there is to like about them is that their bowlers are constantly getting the job done. They have a lot of bowling options – David Miller regularly calls upon seven bowlers – and that backs them up should someone go around the park.
Special Offer
Sign up for a Boylesports account to get up to £25 in free bets! Perfect offer for this league! Click the image below for this great offer! New accounts only. 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Aware.
Key Players
Nicholas Pooran needs to step up and be counted here. We’re a month away from West Indies looking to win another T20 World Cup and their captain really needs to find some form to take into that tournament with him. Trinbago need him to as well.
Kyle Mayers is having a brilliant tournament. He is being successful with the bat and the ball and if he isn’t already cemented in the West Indies squad for the T20 World Cup then he’s doing his chances of going no harm at all. If he scores against this attack he’ll prove his case even more.
Betting
West Indies played India in an ODI series on this ground a few weeks ago and in the two matches not affected by rain 300 was scored in all four innings so you would expect the runs to flow in this match. The problem with that is we are relying on the Trinbago Knight Riders’ batting to come good and there is no guarantee that is going to happen. On the flip side of that, although Barbados Royals look a nice price if that middle three of Pooran, Russell and Pollard choose this as the game they light the touch paper the Knight Riders could be out of sight very quickly.
Instead I’ll go with a player performance bet for Kyle Mayers. He is having a brilliant tournament with 206 runs from his five innings at an average of 41.20. That means if he just bats to his average in this tournament, and he has already surpassed that against the Knight Riders this term when he made 52 against them, then he will cover the 36.5 line chalked up alongside his name. Should he fall short of that then he is likely to bowl some overs and he’s taken three catches in the tournament as well. With the ball he has a four wicket haul so even half of that brings this line in. For a player who opens the batting and the bowling this line looks low should he catch fire in either discipline. Just being average with both should suffice.
Tips
Back K.Mayers’ Performance – Over 36.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2022
