The Caribbean Premier League moves to Trinidad for the first time in the CPL 2024 season on Wednesday night when the Trinbago Knight Riders go up against the defending champions Guyana Amazon Warriors.
That means we have the current winners of the tournament going up against the team who were the favourites to win the title before a ball was bowled. With both sides looking good for a top four finish we should be in for a cracking contest.
Trinbago Knight Riders
The Trinbago Knight Riders went into the tournament with all the expectation on their shoulders. They have one of the best squads ever assembled in this competition and after three wins from their four away matches they have put themselves in a great position to not just push on and make the top four but also to finish in the top two in the table and give themselves two cracks at a spot in the final should they need it. They will move into second place in the table with a win here and with half of their season still to play.
The longer the competition has gone on the better their bowlers have got. Whether that was because they have some aging bowlers who needed a couple of hit outs to get up to full speed or because they have an embarrassment of riches who all left it to each other only they will know but the penny looks to have dropped. The one thing they can rely on is their batting to deliver. There are too many top class acts and if just two of them get going the opposition are in trouble.
Guyana Amazon Warriors
The Guyana Amazon Warriors are in an identical position to their opponents here except that they have their home leg to come after this match so a win here would give them four wins for the season with five home matches to play and they would be looking very good for a spot in the top two at the end of the campaign and the two goes at making the final that comes with doing so. That final will be at their home ground too so Guyana should be feeling very good about themselves.
Guyana will know that their one defeat on the season so far came against the Barbados Royals last time out. The Royals look a very good side so the loss is certainly not a disaster but the way that their bowling fell apart without their captain Imran Tahir will be a concern, especially as he is due to be out for another week. This is a side with a lot of batting depth but even they aren’t guaranteed to chase down 200+ scores so they just need their bowlers to come to the party a touch.
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Key Players
Kieron Pollard is striking at nearly 200 for the Trinbago Knight Riders this season and if he gets in early and offers up those sorts of fireworks then he is entitled to if not take the game away from the Amazon Warriors, to certainly put Trinbago in a good position.
Only Quinton de Kock has hit more sixes for the Guyana Amazon Warriors than Shimron Hetmyer this season and if Guyana are going to give up a few more runs without Imran Tahir then he could be the man assigned the task of getting them back with the bat in hand.
Betting
There were only two matches on this ground last season but both were high scoring affairs with one of them involving these two sides and given that it is the first time these wickets will have been used in a while I see no reason why we shouldn’t expect more of the same this time around, particularly when you consider how these bowling attacks have leaked some runs in this campaign so far. Guyana have surrendered more than 200 in two of their four matches and 168 in another while Trinbago have conceded over 200 once and more than 175 on two other occasions.
When you then consider the insane batting talent that is on show in the match and the depth which these two sides possess with the bat in hand, we should be expecting something of a run fest in this first game at the Queens Park Oval. Trinbago only play two matches on this ground once again so they will want them to be entertaining affairs so when you put all of the ingredients into the pot it is hard to see this one not containing more than 325.5 runs. I’ll play the over.
Tips
Back Over 325.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
