The key battles, standout players and talking points ahead of the 2019 Caribbean Premier League final between Guyana Amazon Warriors and Barbados Tridents
Thirty-three down, one to go. The Caribbean Premier League wraps up at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba on Saturday.
The final of the seventh edition of the premier T20 competition in the Caribbean – the self-christened ‘biggest party in sport’ – will be contested by huge favourites Guyana Amazon Warriors and Barbados Tridents, who denied reigning champions Trinbago Knight Riders in the eliminator.
During the group stage, the Guyana-based side won each of their 10 matches, while the Tridents only won half that number but progressed due to the mediocre records of the other teams in the competition.
Johan Botha’s Warriors – who have finished runners-up in four of the six competitions so far – comfortably beat the Tridents by 30 runs in the first qualifier and went straight to the final.
Botha’s side became the first side in the tournament’s history to complete a perfect run through the group stages.
The Knight Riders – winners in three of the last four years – beat St Kitts & Nevis Patriots in the eliminator, but lost to the Tridents in the second qualifier, giving Phil Simmons’ Tridents a second chance against the roundly dominant Warriors.
In their group stage clashes, Nicholas Pooran’s explosive 61* off 30 led the Warriors to a 47-run victory over the Tridents, for whom Ashley Nurse’s 40 off 25 proved futile.
The Tridents were then edged out by just 12 runs in a rain-affected clash in Bridgetown – the closest any team got to the champions, with Chris Green taking 4/14 and Brandon King making 51 off 34 for the Warriors.
In the first match, Guyana won the toss and chose to field; in the second, Tridents won the toss and chose to field; in the qualifier, Warriors won the toss and chose to bat. Three choices, same result, proving Warriors are at a different level.
Nicholas Pooran: An old head on young shoulders
Shakib Al Hasan v Brandon King and Chandrapaul Hemraj
The world-class Bangladeshi allrounder opening the bowling in the second qualifier but was quickly hauled off after conceding 16, before finishing with 27 without a wicket from his two overs. However, he also holds the best ever bowling figures in the competition with six for six from four overs, although that was in 2013. How will he fare against Guyana’s explosive middle order.
Opening batsmen King, and to a lesser extent Hemraj, have often given the Warriors a sharp start, with King blitzing a record individual CPL score with his gargantuan 132* against Tridents in the first qualifier to make him the top run-scorer this season.
JP Duminy v the treatment table
JP Duminy picked up an injury in the second qualifier on Thursday, meaning he is doubtful for the final. The diminutive South African is eighth in the runs chart and hit the fastest ever CPL fifty off just 15 deliveries against Trinbago this season.
USA spinner Hayden Walsh Jr has had a fine tournament for Barbados Tridents
Hayden Walsh Jr and Raymon Reifer v Warriors' middle-order
American leg-spinner Walsh Jr is the leading wicket-taker in the tournament, having moved onto 21 scalps in eight matches after striking twice against Trinbago.
In September he took the third-best figures in the competition ever, taking five for 19, with medium-pacer Reifer taking the fourth best of all time (five for 20) last year.
How this typically first-change duo fares against the famously powerful Warriors middle-order, especially Shiron Hetmyer and Shoaib, who averages 78.25 with a strike rate of 128.28 and passed 9,000 T20 runs this campaign, could be crucial.
Warriors' death bowlers v Ashley Nurse and Reifer
Nurse, with a breezy 24* off just nine deliveries and Reifer, with 24* off 18, took Barbados out of trouble in their crucial qualifier against Trinbago, having been 112 for six in the 18th over. However, the pair added 48 from the final 13 balls of the innings to leave them defending 160.
Bowling allrounder Nurse admitted after the second qualifier that he had “more or less played this season as a batsman,” despite taking a superb two for 14 from four overs.
Finishing quickly is the difference between a competent and a champion score, and the number of runs snared in the latter overs could define this contest.
Imran Tahir v everyone
On his day, crafty 40-year-old Tahir is a match for anyone. The Surrey and South Africa leggie has the second-best average (14.74) and the second-best economy rate (5.78) in the competition ever, and has 15 wickets so far this year.
The final will be live on Sky Sports Cricket from 9.30pm and Sky Sports Main Event from 11.55pm on Saturday, October 12.
Guyana Amazon Warriors: Brandon King, Chandrapaul Hemraj, Shimron Hetmyer, Shoaib Malik (c), Nicholas Pooran, Sherfane Rutherford, Chris Green, Keemo Paul, Romario Shepherd, Ben Laughlin, Imran Tahir.
Barbados Tridents: Johnson Charles, Alex Hales, Shakib Al Hasan, JP Duminy, Shai Hope, Jonathan Carter, Jason Holder (c), Raymon Reifer, Ashley Nurse, Hayden Walsh Jr, Harry Gurney.
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