The second leg of the Caribbean Premier League double header on Saturday sees probably the two biggest teams in the competition meeting for the second time in CPL 2023 when the Trinbago Knight Riders take on the Jamaica Tallawahs.
We have moved from the Queens Park Oval to the Brian Lara Stadium for the remainder of the Trinidad leg of the season and that means this is a match Trinbago will be eager to maximise. Jamaica need to start performing so this is nicely set up.
Trinbago Knight Riders
The Trinbago Knight Riders arrived at the Brian Lara Stadium for the final half of their home leg of the campaign sitting in second spot in the table so if they can maximise this match and the one to follow it then they will be sitting pretty both in terms of the standings and to finish in the top two and have two chances to make it through to the final and justify the tournament favouritism tag that they carried into the season with them.
Trinbago have been a little more hit and miss with the bat this season than they would have wanted to but the longer their campaign has gone on the more influential their bowlers have been. This is a ground where the bowlers tend to do most of the work so that will be a positive for the Knight Riders. If they can get one of their gun power players to come good with the bat then the home side are entitled to be tough to beat.
Jamaica Tallawahs
The Jamaica Tallawahs haven’t had the title defence that they would have wanted to have had so far with a couple of wins, a washout and three defeats from their first six matches but they are only one point off the top four with two games in hand so they are still in a nice position to reach the final stages of the competition and look to make a successful defence of their title. Three wins from their last four will see them through but two wins might be enough given their respectable net run rate.
The problem that Jamaica have this season is that with the exception of their opening pair there isn’t really a power hitter in their top six, and not really one at the end of the innings when runs in this tournament tend to come by the bucket load. That often leaves them exposed when they have the ball in hand and they are finding that teams don’t need to take risks against the more dangerous bowlers and can just feast on the lesser ones. That is something they need to rectify if they are going to make a successful title defence.
Special Offer
OPEN AN ACCOUNT WITH 888SPORT AND BET £10 TO GET £30 IN FREE BETS PLUS A £10 CASINO BONUS! PERFECT OFFER TO USE ON THE CARIBBEAN PREMIER LEAGUE! CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO JOIN. USE CODE 30F. NEW ACCOUNTS ONLY. 18+ T&Cs apply (See image for significant terms). Gamble Aware.
Key Players
Akeal Hosein has been used a fair bit by the Trinbago Knight Riders in this tournament. He has often batted up the order to provide a left-handed option and he will most likely open the bowling on a track which should suit.
Imad Wasim has probably had more of an impact with the bat in this competition than the Jamaica Tallawahs would have wanted but they will need him to make an impression with the ball in this one. If he does he could lead his team to victory.
Betting
These two have already met in what was a low scoring match at the Kensington Oval in Barbados and on a ground where batting is renowned to be much more difficult than there I’m not expecting to see a high scoring game here. I probably wouldn’t have expected that between these two anyway because these are two of the better bowling units in the competition, if not the best two, so I would have expected the ball to dominate the bat.
The run line for this match is up at 333.5 which is 51.5 runs more than the 282 that we saw when these two met in Barbados. There were four matches on this ground last season, including the meeting between these two sides, and none of them covered this total and only one got near it. There is the impression that dew will make a difference here but on a ground where batting is known to be hard and on a pitch which will be being used for the third time in the day, I expect the under to land here.
Tips
Back Under 333.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2023
