Guyana Amazon Warriors Team News
The Guyana Amazon Warriors have delivered a stunning comeback from a stage when it seemed like they would be finishing at the bottom of the table.
With four wins in their last five, Nicholas Pooran ensured that his men finish in second place with 12 points and maintain their flawless record of reaching the playoffs in every season of the Caribbean Premier League.
They are heading in this fixture after upsetting Jamaica Tallawahs back to back – beating them by 46 runs in the first one and 14 runs in the second.
In the first leg, the Warriors posted 169 runs on the board – courtesy of Pooran’s 75 off 39 and some small contribution from the other batsmen. In the reverse fixture, they put up just 142 runs batting first – this time, they were powered by Romario Shepherd’s 72 off 31.
What propelled them to the two wins was the superb bowling by the likes of Odean Smith (3-21, 3-20), Romario Shepherd (1-31, 3-31), Imran Tahir, Naveen-ul-Haq.
Needless to say, the Guyana team has relied a lot on their bowling this season – the fact that three of the top five bowlers in the L 2021 are from their side (Shepherd, Smith, and Tahir) says it all.
However, what they should keep an eye out for is the misfiring in their batting. Time and again, they have had to rely on individual brilliance rather than a concerted team effort to put runs on the board. There is obviously no shortage of talent here.
Likely XI: Brandon King, Chandrapaul Hemraj, Shoaib Malik, Shimron Hetmyer, Nicholas Pooran, Romario Shepherd, Anthony Bramble, Naveen-ul-Haq, Imran Tahir, Gudakesh Motie, Odean Smith
St Kitts & Nevis Patriots Team News
St Kitts & Nevis Patriots have got plenty of T20 specialists in their rank. But that may not amount to much when we consider the fact they lost four of their last five in the league and got to the playoffs following a strong start to the season (five wins back to back).
Most recently, they played Trinbago Knight Riders consecutively and qualified for the semis after winning the first leg by 8 wickets. Chasing a target of 160 runs, Evin Lewis singlehandedly drove the team with his handsome century of 102 in half as many balls.
In the second leg, however, the Patriots batted first and put up a small target of 148 runs – Lewis wasn’t a part of the playing XI then. The Knight Riders chased it down with four wickets to spare.
The runner-ups in the 2017 season, St Kitts & Nevis Patriots boast of several high-profile players like Chris Gayle, Evin Lewis, Shane Rutherford, Dwayne Bravo, and Fabian Allen.
As a unit, they tick all the right boxes in the right departments but the inconsistency in results of late may just spell their doom.
Likely XI: Chris Gayle, Evin Lewis, Sherfane Rutherford, Fabian Allen, Joshua Da Silva, Asif Ali, Dwayne Bravo, Dominic Drakes, Sheldon Cottrell, Jon-Russ Jaggessar, Naseem Shah
Venue & conditions
Scattered showers are the forecast for Tuesday afternoon in Basseterre, St Kitts and Nevis. As a result, rain may interrupt the play and the possibility of using the D/L rule is also on the cards.
Being the home turf of the Patriots, they are certainly more than familiar with Warner Park. The last couple of games have been low-scoring ones but teams with enough batting firepower have found it in them to reach high totals.
