LCPL Cricket double-header at Providence...Amazon Warriors play St Lucia in feature match tonight

LCPL Cricket double-header at Providence…Amazon Warriors play St Lucia in feature match tonight

Aug 04, 2013 Sports

Antigua face-off with Jamaica this afternoon

By Sean Devers
On the back of victories over Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica last week the Guyana Amazon Warriors will look to maintain a hundred percent record in the Guyana leg of the inaugural Limacol CPL T20 Cricket tournament when they battle St Lucia Zouks from 20:00hrs tonight at Providence.

LCPL Cricket double-header at Providence…Amazon Warriors play St Lucia in feature match tonight.

Antigua Hawksbills face Jamaica Tallawahs in the opening match of the day’s double header from 15:00hrs and like on the first two nights, tickets are all sold out and another capacity crowd is anticipated.
The Ramnaresh Sarwan led Guyana combination will once again be banking on their bowlers, especially the spinners Veerasammy Permaul, Mohammed Hafeez and mystery man Sunil Narine to perform under pressure in their last match on home soil.
The overwhelming support from massive crowds, waving Golden Arrow Heads and bright yellow Amazon Warriors flags, no doubt inspired the local side to the success and they will expect no less an atmosphere tonight.
The batting has to be Guyana biggest worry with only Lendl Simmons, who made 42 in the first match, getting a fifty. But the good news is that skipper Sarwan seem to be returning to his best form, judging from his two cameos so far in the tournament.
Martin Guptill looked well set before he fell for 32 in the last game, while James Franklyn hit the ball with awesome power in his unbeaten 26 in the opening match. Hafeez, Narsingh Deonarine and Chris Barnwell all need to produce with bat if Guyana are to continue their winning ways.
A negative from emphatic victories when chasing is the necessity to bat from Denish Ramdin, Narine, Permaul and Krishmar Santokie in the event that they are needed tonight.

Guyanese fans will turn out in numbers for another party. (CPL)

Santokie has been spot-on with his left arm seam, while Franklyn has proved expensive on tracks in Guyana which are not conducive for fast bowling.
Zouk is a fast tempo carnival style of music originating from the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique but very popular in Islands like St Lucia which has a French Creole influence; hence the name of the St Lucia team.
On paper, the Zouks have a formidable team and their fans could be dancing in the Streets of Gros Islet later tonight if everything falls into place for the team from the Windward Islands.
Led by impassioned West Indies T20 Captain Darren Sammy the Zouks have in their batting line-up Herschelle Gibbs, Devon Smith, the in-form Misbah Ul Haq, Albie Morkel, Andre Fletcher, Liam Sebastien and Tamin Iqbal.
However, in Guyana conditions it might be left to the bowlers to bail their team out of trouble since players like Smith and Fletcher, who made 57 against Barbados, are vulnerable to spin early in their innings.
Shane Shillingford, considered by many unlucky not to have played in the ODIs against Pakistan in Guyana, could be St Lucia’s biggest treat tonight with his big turning off breaks although the towering Morkel is capable of adjusting to the slow nature of the pitches here.
Left-arm seamer Kenroy Peters and the genuinely quick Nelon Pascal could trouble the batsmen but it could be left-arm spinners Garey Mathurin and Kavim Hodge and off-spinners Sebastien and Dalton Polius who offer the most support to Shillingford.
Only Ashley Nurse of the Barbados Tridents with six scalps, has more wickets than the Guyana pair of Santokie and Permaul who has five each, while Simmons’ 109 runs is only bettered by two runs by Shoaib Malik of Barbados.
Guyana should start as favorites tonight but they will be mindful of not being complacent after their wonderful start in the competition.

Darren Sammy and the Zouks will look to celebrate. (CPL)

St Lucia is only one of three teams with a 150 plus total in the competition (152 all out) while the others are joint points leaders Guyana (155-5) and Barbados (169-5). But St Lucia’s chase was a in a losing effort in their only match against Barbados.
Both Jamaica and Antigua have lost their opening games but Jamaica should know the conditions here better since it was Guyana who beat them at Providence.
The law of averages suggests the explosive Chris Gayle will get a ‘big one’ this afternoon after a string of failures could be a Psychological disadvantage for Antigua who are being led by flamboyant Jamaican batsman Marlon Samuels.
Despite strange tactics by Skipper Samuels in his team’s first match when he give wicketkeeper Devon Thomas a bowl in the penultimate over, Antigua is rich in batting experience with Ricky Ponting, West Indies opener Johnson Charles, Justin Kemp, Thomas, Kieran Powell and heavy weight Rakeem Cornwall in their line-up.
In addition to Gayle, Jamaica will pin their hopes on Ahmad Shahzad, Danza Hyatt, Carlton Baugh, David Bernard, Jacques Rudolph and Nkrumah Bonner with the bat.
At 41, the tournament’s oldest player, off-spinner Mutiah Muralitharan is still a top class bowler and could be a handful for Antigua’s batsmen at Providence.