Latest update December 19th, 2024 3:22 AM
Warriors battle rain and Zouks tonight at Providence
A relaxed Carl Hooper Chats with Courtly Ambrose
at Providence yesterday
By Sean Devers
The Guyana Amazon Warriors would have to win two of their last three matches to qualify for the semi-finals of the third edition of the Hero CPL T20 cricket tournament scheduled for Trinidad from July 23-27. Following their abandoned game on Wednesday with Jamaica Tallawahs giving both teams one point, it’s imperative that they go all out for a victory against the St Lucia Zouks tonight from 20:00hrs at Providence.
The Warriors have seven points with three games to play while the Zouks, who play their final match tonight, are on nine points from nine games and are desperately seeking two points from this game to keep their semi-finals hopes alive.
The middle of July is usually the dry season in Guyana but heavy rain accompanied by thunderstorms and lightening washed out their last match without a ball being bowled to the disappointment of a sold out crowd and tonight both teams will have one eye on each other and other one on the weather as the Warriors battles the Zouks and the rain which is again forecast for today.
The encouraging thing for the home team franchise is that the Providence Stadium is one of the fastest drying International cricket grounds in the world and the slow low pitch here should favor Warriors’ off-spinner Sunil Narine, leg spinner Devendra Bishoo and left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul while seam bowler Paul Wintz should bowl well in Guyana’s conditions and could replace Merchant DeLange in the side.
Once the rain, which left several areas in Demerara under water and is forecast for today, stays away, the game could see another capacity crowd.
The Warriors, with two wins and two losses from four matches could start as favorites for tonight’s game.
Led by 35-year-old former England superstar Kevin Pietersen in the absence of Darren Sammy who broke his arm while batting, the Zouks will also depend on the inform Andre Fletcher who is second in the batting aggregate with 354 runs and along with leading scorer and the only centurion this season, Marlon Samuels, are the only batsmen with 300 runs. Pietersen is fifth highest run scorer with 271 runs.
Johnson Charles, Ross Taylor and Brendon McCullum will hope to contribute with the bat while the Zouks possess one of the better fast bowling attacks in the competition in the genuinely quick Fidel Edwards, Shannon Gabriel, Kemar Roach and left-arm pacer Delorn Johnson.
Off spinners Shane Shillingford and Liam Sebastien along with leg-spinner Eddie Leie makes them a formidable side and it is somewhat surprising that the Zouks only have four wins including a close two-run last ball victory over the Warriors in St Lucia when Shiv Chanderpaul faced 19 dot balls in a painstaking seven.
The Amazon Warriors will need Assad Fudadin, who had two good knocks as opener, to be a bit more positive in the power-play overs to not put too much pressure on Lindl Simmons.
Skipper Denish Ramdin has batted well at number three while 40-year-old Brad Hodge (234) has been a revelation with bat in the tournament and is the only batsman from the local Franchise with more than 150 runs while Chris Barnwell, who is batting too low in the order, needs to contribute more with the bat since his bowling seems to have gone off the boil in recent times.
DeLange and Ronsford Beaton (the Warriors leading wicket-taker with 11 scalps), both genuinely quick, could find bowling on the slow Providence track not much fun under lights.
The Tridents are on top with 10 points from eight matches while, depending on tonight’s result, the Tallawahs, the Patriots, the Zouks and the Red Steel could find themselves battling for the last semi-final spot, that is if the rain does not spoil the warriors’ dance.
Guyana Amazon Warriors: Lindl Simmons, Assad Fudadin, Denish Ramdin (Captain), Brad Hodge, Chris Barnwell, David Wiese, Sunil Narine, Paul Wintz, Devendra Bishoo, Veerasammy Permaul, Ronsford Beaton, Umar Akmal, Merchant DeLange, Trevon Griffith, Shemron Hetymer, Shiv Chanderpaul.
St Lucia Zouks: Kevin Pietersen (Captain), Johnson Charles, Andre Fletcher, Ross Tailor, Henry Davids, Keddy Lesporis, Nathan McCullum, Kyle Mayers, Gidron Pope, Fidel Edwards, Kemar Roach, Shannon Gabriel, Liam Sebastien, Shane Shillingford, Eddie Leie, Delorn Johnson.
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