Jamaica Tallawahs v Trinbago Knight Riders
Tuesday 1 September 15:00
TV: live on Betfair Video
Tallawahs well placed
Tallawahs have the edge in the play-off race between them and the Tridents. They have a game in hand and are two points to the good. Now would be the perfect time to inflict Trinbago’s first defeat of the season.
They could do with Andre Russell back, though. The influential all-rounder has missed the last two matches. Against the Patriots they coped well, though that may have more to do with the pathetic opposition.
Possible XI Phillips, Bonner, Blackwood, Powell, Asif Ali, Brathwaite, Walton, Permaul, Mujeeb, Lamichhane, Edwards.
Where’s Narine?
Trinbago keep winning but there is concern that Sunil Narine is still injured and Dwayne Bravo sat out the win over the Tridents. This is a potential chink in their armour when it comes to the business end.
Against Tridents they looked certain to record their first loss. They used seven bowlers and lacked their normal control, conceding 148. Tridents then bossed the chase. But somehow Trinbago recovered from 36 for four in the eighth and 108 for seven in the 18th to win. How? Kieron Pollard produced a memorable knock of 72 off 28.
Possible XI Simmons, Webster, Munro, DM Bravo, T Seifert, K Pollard, A Hosein, S Raza, K Pierre, Seales, Fawad.
Head-to-heads
2020 TKR 136-3 (Narine 53, Mujeeb 1-13) chased 135-8 JT (Phillips 58, Seales 2-21)
2019 TKR 267-2 (Munro 96*) defended JT 226-5 (Phillips 62)
TKR 191-4 (Webster 66*) defended JT 169-6Overall Tridents 10 Zouks 5
Overall TKR 8 JT 9
Fairer track
There have now been 18 CPL matches played at the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba. The first-innings scores (1-2 denote match won by side batting first or second, most recent first): 144-1/185-1/118-1/176-1/137-2/135-2/127-2/158-2/144-2/153-1/171-1/160-1/147-2/165-1/135-2/159-2/168-2/159-1. That is an average of 152. Unlike Queen’s Park Oval, there is no toss bias. It is true the last four were won by the side batting first. But the previous four were won by the chaser. This wicket seems fairer.
Be weather aware
Tallawahs will be keeping their fingers crossed that Narine does not return. They have struggled against spin all season and with the Tarouba wicket having had time to recover, the planets could come into line for them to cause an upset. Still, we’re not enamoured by the [2.20]. We were expecting [2.40] at least for this one.
That means Trinbago only have to have a little wobble for us to try to book an in-play wager at around the [1.70] mark. The biggest factor looks likely to be weather. Rain looks certain to disrupt the match. It could be a five-over slog for both outfits. At best the chaser is going to have a reduced target and that gives them a big advantage. If we can get [1.90] on either we’ll probably play.
Tops value
Nkrumah Bonner is 11/2 for top Tallawahs bat. He opened last time. But he has back-to-back wins from the middle order this term.
Pollard is 6s for top TKR bat. On win rate it’s chunky but Sportsbook are aware back-to-back wins are rare indeed.