With the Caribbean Premier League coming to near to its near end, here is my preview on the final four teams. Who will make the final and be crowned champion for 2020?
Semi Final 1 Guyana Amazon Warriors Vs St Lucia Zouks
St Lucia is the surprise packets of this season, were given no hope by many experts buy have to turn it around and now made the playoffs. Lead by Darren Sammy who said ahead of the semi-final, “The cricket gods are crazy. I’d love to win my semi-final game, that’s why we play. It’s a clean slate now – what happened before doesn’t matter, it’s about how you play on Tuesday, and who wants it most.” The Zouks rise is through their king of spin in Mohammad Nabi who has starred with the bat and ball with 11 wickets in the regular season and 122 runs. Furthermore, Kesrick Williams has also starred with the ball with 24 wickets so he will be crucial if they want to cause an upset against the Warriors.
Big Rakeem Cornwall having starred with his new opening role with making crucial ’30s will give the Zouks a chance. On to the Warriors, well they have performed well all season led by spinner Chris Green who has starred in the tournament this year with nine wickets and crucial to restricting teams to low totals. Not to mention Imran Tahir who is getting better in age with 15 wickets this season and is key to the Warriors success as well.
What has benefited the Warriors mostly is the rise of Shimron Hetmyer who has dominated this year with 267 runs. He is also helped by Nicholas Pooran as well with 234 runs. These two young guns could take the Warriors all the way. On the match, it will be interesting match last time they both met the Zouks got the chocolates by ten runs with Roston Chase staring with the bat with 66 and Scott Kuggeleijn taking 3 wickets as the Zouks defended 146. This was Romario Shepherd’s take before the semi-final “We were under some pressure so we had to come out with our backs against the wall to execute and win some games. But for the fans back home, we did it.”
So it will be an interesting match.I think the Warriors will be able to get the victory but will be a close one.
Semi Final 2 Trinbago Knight Riders Vs Jamaica Tallawahs
Trinbago has been unbeaten all year and has looked the favourites in all 10 games. With Darren Bravo showing his worth with the bat with 239 runs and Kieron Pollard with 207 runs the Knight Riders have been firing on all cylinders with the bat. But also the ball as well with Fawad Ahmed who has taken 10 wickets and MVP Sunil Narine who has been a key to the Knight Riders.
Before missing three matches Narine was leading batting and bowling but missed out on being number one. Narine had a great season with 12 wickets and 250 runs, which is quite brilliant. He will be key to the Knight Riders semi-final victory.
For the Tallawahs who just made the finals by one point and will want to shake off the Knight Riders. The Tallawahs have been led by Andre Russel and Carlos Brathwaite who are both know to be an explosive batsman. With both firing with bat and ball and over 200 runs between them this season that could give the Knight Riders a run for their money.
Not to mention they have Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Nepalese sensation in Sandeep Lamichane who have both take over 20 wickets in the 10 matches. So there is a lot of pressure on the Knight Riders to win this due to be them unbeaten. This was Kieron Pollard on Knight Riders’ winning streak “It’s not something that we envisioned. We just spoke about having to play 12 games this tournament and being the best that we can be for 12 games. Ten out of ten is magnificent and all credit must go to the support staff, the players, and each and every one of us who came day in and day out.” The Tallwahs of causing an upset with Rovman Powell saying Andre is the world’s best allrounder and world’s best allrounder for a reason, Enough said”. I think the Knight riders will win this comfortably but don’t be surprised that Carlos Brawathiate and Andre Russel put in a clutch performance to get the Tallwahs over the line.
Written by: Patrick Morrow
