Trinbago Knight Riders Team News
As discussed in our L Playoffs preview, Trinbago got better and better as the tournament progressed. As evidenced by the fact that they won four of their last five. Kieron Pollard’s men have put in a real team effort, key to any successful T20 side.
Five players ed 150 runs for the tournament- Simmons, Pollard, Nine, Seifert and Munro- while Munro (239) and Pollard (235) both ed 200. Curiously, only Pollard ever ed 50 and he managed to do so twice.
With the ball, it was a similar story with eight different players taking wickets. Of those, Ravi Rampaul took 18, AJ Hosein got 12, while Sunil Narine and Isuru Udana took 11. What Narine and Hosein did brilliantly other than take wickets was to keep the runs down.
They both went at less than 5 an over during the Group Stages and this wasn’t from a small sample, either. They bowled 36 and 38 overs respectively. Narine is giving himself a really good chance of making the Windies squad for the T20 World Cup on the back of his performances.
That is, if he decides he fancies it. You never know with him. They’ve now decided that it’s veteran Dinesh Ramdin who deserves a place as an opener. It’s a bit odd given he’s rarely batted there in his long career.
But with all the batting they have to come, it probably won’t make much of a difference.
Likely XI
Simmons, Ramdin, Munro, D Bravo, Pollard, Seifert, Narine, Udana, Hosein, Seales, Rampaul
St Lucia Kings Team News
An inconsistent season where they were hot one minute and cold the next. It was a somewhat controversial move to appoint Faf Du Plessis, a man who had never played a single L match before this season, as captain.
But after a shaky start with the captaincy and bat, he got there in the end. Getting to the semis would have been the bare minimum in of the King’s objectives and at least he’s managed to get them that far.
With the bat, he was pretty inconsistent but then again, he scored a century and an 84. On both occasions, his contributions were match-winning ones so he came good when it mattered and without those, the Kings wouldn’t have made the semi-finals.
But their main man is Roston Chase, who has put in a superb all-round performance in just about every match. They’ll need plenty from him here. Raheem Cornwall played last time out but with Du Plessis coming back after being rested, he’s likely to have to make way.
Likely XI
Fletcher, Deyal, Du Plessis, Chase, David, Wiese, Alleyne, Wahab, Joseph, Royal, Williams
Venue & conditions
The Warner Park conundrum goes on. Three matches were played there on Sunday which led to first-innings scores of 190, 142 and 147. Interestingly, that 190 was by the Kings. Even more interestingly, it was chased by Barbados, the worst team in the tournament
Two of yesterday’s matches were won by the chasing side.
The conclusion? No, I don’t know either. Other than to say that it’s the quality of the players that will allow their teams to prevail, rather than how the wicket will play.
