The Caribbean Premier League has reached Trinidad as the Queens Park Oval hosts the CPL 2023 campaign for the first time on Tuesday night when the Trinbago Knight Riders take on the Guyana Amazon Warriors.
These two teams sit safely in the top three in the table going into the match and one of them will end the night on top of the table as we head towards the final third of the regular season. That should ensure a competitive contest.
Trinbago Knight Riders
It feels like the Trinbago Knight Riders have gone under the radar in this tournament. One reason for that might be the fact that they haven’t had their home leg so have only played in five of the 18 matches so far but they have won three of them and are sitting very pretty in the table starting out on their home games. It is hard to believe a power packed side like this one can go unnoticed but they certainly have all the attention on them for the next week or so.
Trinbago actually lost their opening match so they have won their last three since then so they are going into their home period of the season in very good form. Their brutal batting picked up their first win but since then their bowlers have done a lot more of the damage. They have restricted their opponents to 61 and 140/7 in their last two matches and they have been on good batting decks so this is the team to beat at the minute.
Guyana Amazon Warriors
Trinbago Knight Riders are not the only team coming into this match off the back of three straight wins. Guyana Amazon Warriors have done the same thing and with their home leg being the final one of the competition, the fact that they start the night in second place in the table, they are in a very good position from which to strike and at least seal a top two spot and give themselves the two bites at the cherry to make the final which all teams desire.
If there is a question mark over the Amazon Warriors it comes in the form of what they have beaten. Two of their three wins were against the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots and they have been the worst team in the competition by far. The win over the Jamaica Tallawahs looked a good one at the time but even they are flattering to deceive a touch. Guyana have put up 186 or more in those three wins though so they are getting the job done with the bat and the ball. That batting unit gets tested here.
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Key Players
Andre Russell is the leading wicket taker for the Trinbago Knight Riders. We probably would have expected him to have more impact with the bat than the ball but he has only faced 29 balls all tournament. You sense he’ll leave his mark on the event with the bat before he’s done this season.
Keemo Paul has had a massive impact on the tournament with the bat so far but he is probably the opposite to Russell where he would have expected to have his biggest impact with the ball. If that comes along here he is a big player for Guyana.
Betting
The Queens Park Oval hasn’t been the highest scoring ground in this part of the world in recent seasons and it will be interesting to see if that changes for this campaign. Given that there is a women’s match ahead of this one I suspect it might not change immediately and so with that in mind I’m going to favour the spinners. The spinner in question in this one is Sunil Narine who has a very low looking performance line at 22.5.
Teams are starting to sit on Narine in T20 cricket these days but with the likes of Dwayne Bravo, Andre Russell and Akeal Hosein all in this attack they can’t really afford to sit on him forever and I think the wily spinner will have a big part to play at least in the two matches on this ground if not all in Trinidad. Last year when these two met on this ground Narine covered this total with the bat and then took 2-9 from four overs. He might not get in with the bat but I would be amazed if he goes wicketless here. Narine has six wickets in his last three matches and two more here covers this, as does a wicket and a catch and also a wicket and a few runs. I like the over for Narine.
Tips
Back S.Narine’s Performance – Over 22.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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