The Caribbean Premier League continues on Thursday evening when the CPL 2024 campaign heads back to the Daren Sammy Stadium for a big clash between the St Lucia Kings and the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots.
These two are the bottom two sides in the table heading into the match. St Lucia have more matches left to play than St Kitts and Nevis though so this feels more important for the visitors but every home game is key in this competition.
St Lucia Kings
This has been a bit of a weird season for the St Lucia Kings so far. I say that because historically in this tournament teams struggle to pick up wins on the road and build their win record in their home games. The Kings have done things the other way around though. They won both of the road matches they have played so far and having set up the chance to take control of the table they have lost both of their home games, so they will be keen to get a win in front of their own fans here.
It might not be a coincidence that the four matches that the St Lucia Kings have been involved in this season have all been won by the chasing side. St Lucia have a fair amount of batting depth but their bowling can leave a little to be desired, particularly the longer that the innings goes on so for comfort they would want to win the toss here and look to chase a score. If they can do that they will be confident of winning but if they are asked to bat first that could be trouble.
St Kitts and Nevis Patriots
The St Kitts and Nevis Patriots have got themselves in a right hole in this campaign. They have had the home leg of their season and completely fluffed their lines in it and now they have to go on the road for their final four matches and probably need to win three of those games if not all four if they are going to extend their season. To be fair to them, they haven’t been helped one bit by injuries and constant chopping and changing to their squad and their XI but they will know they are underperforming.
The mad thing for the Patriots is that they have the leading wicket taker in the competition but only have one win from their six matches to show for it. That tells us that their batting hasn’t delivered which is something of a surprise because on paper that unit looks strong, although it should be said that is the department where they have suffered the most injuries. If they can come up with the goods then there is enough in their bowling resources to get the job done.
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Key Players
Bhanuka Rajapaksa has looked as good as anyone with the bat for the St Lucia Kings so if anyone can take them up to a score they might be able to defend then it could be him. He can also propel a run chase too so he is a key player.
Evin Lewis has had a decent tournament but he hasn’t delivered for the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots at the right times in the season for his side. They could seriously do with a big innings from the opening batter, especially if the Patriots bat first.
Betting
I’m not massively keen in backing either of these sides because neither of them are batting particularly well. All four St Lucia matches have been won by the team batting second and I wouldn’t be surprised if that continued but we won’t know who is batting second until the toss has been completed so I’m going to head to the side markets for a bet on this match and that comes in the player performance offering of Wanindu Hasaranga.
He is one of the best leg spinners doing the rounds these days but he has been batting fairly high for the Patriots because of their injury issues. He might have the perfect opponent to get stuck into here because four of the St Lucia wickets last time out went to spin while six of the 10 wickets Guyana took against them here fell to spin so you’ve got to think there are wickets in this one for the Sri Lankan. He is going to field in key areas too so a performance line of 42.5 looks low even without looking at his displays so far. He scored 40 and took a wicket in his first match for 60 points and scored 23, took four wickets and a catch for a total of 113 in his second. This line looks very low on this wicket.
Tips
Back W.Hasaranga’s Performance – Over 42.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with William Hill
Back him here:
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