We already know that the St Lucia Kings will be competing in the Caribbean Premier League final on Sunday and on Friday night we will find out their opponents when the Barbados Royals take on the Guyana Amazon Warriors in the CPL 2024 Qualifier 2.
The Royals have somewhat fortunately made their way through to what is effectively the semi-final here while for Guyana this is their second chance to take their title defence the distance and reach the final once again.
Barbados Royals
The Barbados Royals were very much the team to beat in the opening half of the competition but things went a little awry once they got to Guyana. They played four matches in this part of the world in the regular campaign and lost the lot so they went into the Eliminator with most people expecting them to be beaten. They will argue that they needed a change in luck and they certainly got it in that match when the floodlights went out and left them with a favourable five over run chase.
To their credit, the Royals made full use of the opportunity they were presented with and made it through to this stage of the competition but I think it is fair to suggest that they are going to need to offer more here if they are going to make the final. The good thing is that David Miller got into form in that five over slap and tickle but to be fair it has been their bowlers who have been under par since they got to Guyana rather than the batters.
Guyana Amazon Warriors
The Guyana Amazon Warriors started the competition a little slowly but as we would have expected they have caught fire once we got back to Guyana and they probably went into the playoffs as the team expected to dominate the series and go on and make a comfortable defence of their title. That immediately hasn’t been how it has gone after they were beaten by the St Lucia Kings. The Amazon Warriors topped the table though so they always knew that they had this second chance if they needed it but now we are playing knockout cricket.
To be fair to the Amazon Warriors, although they were behind when the rain came in Qualifier 1, there were still two very aggressive batters at the crease and a couple more to come so it wasn’t set in stone that they would have lost that match so they can consider themselves a little unfortunate. They will want their batters to have them on the front foot here though just in case the game is curtailed. They will also want a much better start with the ball as well.
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Key Players
David Miller was shoved up the order to get the job done in the five over chase earlier in the week and it will be interesting to see where he comes into bat in this match. You suspect Barbados Royals will need a contribution from him if they are to win here though.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz is the man who sets the pace with the bat for the Guyana Amazon Warriors. When he gets going and gets them off to a solid start then the rest have the freedom to get stuck in and explode the score. If he struggles or fails Guyana can sometimes get stuck.
Betting
Both the matches between these two sides were high scoring in the regular season and I don’t actually see anything different coming along here. What gives me confidence that this will be high scoring is because in both matches Maheesh Theekshana, the only real gun bowler in this Barbados Royals unit, took 0-21 and 3-15 in the two games and both still exploded into a high scoring contest. He isn’t going to bowl much better than that effort and if Guyana actually get him away a bit better it plays even more into the high scoring game angle.
The question then is how to play the game and while the 16.5 sixes line has been covered in both matches, I’m not sure there is as much wiggle room there, especially if say a Shai Hope or that sort of player do the majority of the scoring. The run line is around the 335 mark and I fancy that to be covered but I am weary of the scoreboard pressure in a knockout match so I think the best bet is for over 40.5 boundaries. The totals in the two matches have been 47 and 55, the latter being on this ground. There has been nothing in the finals to suggest the pitches are fading and when you consider that St Lucia hit 26 boundaries against the Amazon Warriors on Wednesday, there is no sign of the Guyana attack coming to the party. I like over 40.5 boundaries here when we consider the depth in the Guyana batting too.
Tips
Back Over 40.5 boundaries for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
