The defending champions conclude their CPL regular season in the opening match of the double header in the tournament on Thursday when the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots go up against the Trinbago Knight Riders.
The equation for the Patriots is simple. If they are going to keep their title defence alive they have to win here and then hope that the Knight Riders lose to Guyana on Saturday evening and that the Amazon Warriors don’t win their remaining matches. Trinbago probably need one win from their last two to progress to the final stages.
Trinbago Knight Riders
The Trinbago Knight Riders went into the tournament expected to be the team who would dominate the event with the power they had put together in their side but they haven’t lived up to that billing. They did put successive wins together prior to their last match but a defeat to the St Lucia Kings which was a lot more comfortable than the end score suggested has knocked when back a step. They don’t have to win this but there will be no end of pressure on them in their final game if they lose here.
The Knight Riders were expected to be brutal with the bat this season but that hasn’t really ever happened. To be fair to them this tournament has been played on some ordinary wickets which haven’t suited their batters but there is enough experience in their unit to have done better than they have. The positive for Trinbago is their bowling has been useful throughout the tournament and have kept them in qualifying contention.
St Kitts and Nevis Patriots
There is no getting away from the fact that this has been a shocking title defence for the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots so far and a defeat here will see it come to an end before the final stages. They haven’t been able to find any consistency at all and that is a surprise because they came into the event off the back of winning the 6ixty which was meant to be the boost they wanted heading into the campaign. It has turned out to be nothing like that.
The batting just hasn’t come to the party for the Patriots and that is a big surprise because there are some big players in their unit. They have five top class batters but they just haven’t performed. It isn’t too late for them but they have to perform now else it will be the end. Their bowlers are plugging away but you sense the pressure they are under from a lack of runs is proving too much of a burden for them to overcome.
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Key Players
Spin is king in this part of the world and there aren’t many spinners who are better than Sunil Narine. He might also be sent up the order to get the Trinbago Knight Riders ahead of the rate on a pitch that only gets harder to bat on.
Rashid Khan needs to be a big player for the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots here. These are conditions where he should be harder to get away than he usually is and if he can chip in with a cameo with the bat so much the better.
Betting
We’ve seen in the two matches so far in Guyana that scoring runs is difficult but we have also seen that the ropes can be cleared. In the match between Barbados and the Patriots on Wednesday only two Barbados batters got going and they still hit seven sixes and there is a whole lot more power in this Trinbago Knight Riders batting unit than there is in the Barbados one from top to bottom. We’ve seen that there is a bit more grass on these pitches to hold them together through until the final and while it isn’t easy to bat it does at least mean the bad ball can be put away.
That makes me think we might see a few sixes off the bat of the Trinbago Knight Riders here. While winning is the only thing that matters to them, if that powerful middle order can start clearing the ropes and striking fear into the opposition then it would certainly do them the world of good down the line. When you consider there is Colin Munro, Nicholas Pooran, Kieron Pollard, Andre Russell and Sunil Narine who can all strike a clean ball and even Akeal Hosein who isn’t the worst hitter in the world, I think the Knight Riders can treat us to seven sixes here.
Tips
Back Trinbago Knight Riders – Over 6.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with William Hill
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