THE curtain will finally come down upon the month-long carnival of Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) 2018 when the Guyana Amazon Warriors and Trinbago Knight Riders face off in the summit clash of CPL 6 at the Brian Lara Stadium this evening.
The Amazon Warriors and Knight Riders will come up against each other for the fourth time this season. But unlike any of their previous meetings, there’s a lot at stake in this particular match. It is the Grand Finale.
The Amazon Warriors and Knight Riders are the last two teams standing in the competition, and they will vie to be crowned the 2018 champions.
Both teams finished the league stage as the top two teams. The Amazon Warriors progressed directly to the final after they defeated the Knight Riders in the first of the playoff matches, while the Knight Riders, the defending champions, had to defeat the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in Qualifier 2 on Friday night to make it to the title clash.
This is Guyana’s fourth appearance in the final, and although they have not won a CPL title, the Amazon Warriors must be feel they’re walking on a cloud after back-to-back upsets over the defending champions in their last two outings.
Guyana have been outstanding throughout this tournament and will definitely be the more confident side going into this game. Shimron Hetmyer has shown fantastic form and he has been among the most consistent batsmen in the tournament.
He will once again be their key in the batting lineup and the team will expect him to continue from where he left off while Sherfane Rutherford has proved to be one of the hottest commodities in the market in CPL 2018.
Warriors’ bowling, which looked thin at the start of the season, has fallen into place over recent matches, but standing between them and a first title are the formidable opponents hunting for a third title.
TKR have found batting heroes for every situation, with Colin Munro being the leading batsman with 464 runs. The opening batsman will be their key against the Warriors, but Knight Riders will also have huge expectations from the likes of Darren Bravo and Brendon McCullum who have had a few good hits this season and are among the top 10 run-scorers.
Knight Riders’ attack has been the remorseless machine all season and remains the best bowling side in the competition.
Meanwhile, speaking ahead of tournament decider at the pre-match press conference at the Hyatt Regency in Trinidad and Tobago yesterday afternoon, both captains, Chris Green and Dwayne Bravo, said that while both teams are riding high on momentum, the contest cannot be taken lightly from either camp.
While there will be no favourites when they take the field today at (17.00hrs), Bravo and co. will know they cannot take the Warriors lightly as the Chris-Green-powered team are quite capable of raining on TKR’s parade.
One thing is for sure, it promises to be a cracking match between two fine sides, and a fitting way to bring down the curtain on a super Hero CPL season.
Trinbago Knight Riders: Dwayne Bravo, Chris Lynn, Sunil Narine, Brendon McCullum, Darren Bravo, Denesh Ramdin, Colin Munro, Shadab Khan, Khary Pierre, Javon Searles, Kevon Cooper, Nikita Miller, Anderson Phillip, Hamza Tariq, Amir Jangoo, Shannon Gabriel, Fawad Ahmed, Ali Khan.
Guyana Amazon Warriors: Sohail Tanvir, Shoaib Malik, Chadwick Walton, Cameron Delport, Rayad Emrit, Imran Tahir, Jason Mohammed, Luke Ronchi, Veerasammy Permaul, Roshon Primus, Shimron Hetmyer, Devendra Bishoo, Gajanand Singh, Sherfane Rutherford, Romario Shepherd, Keemo Paul, Saurabh Netravalkar, Akshaya Persaud