Hero CPL T20...Warriors could go all the way this year, face Tallawahs tonight in Eliminator 1

Hero CPL T20…Warriors could go all the way this year, face Tallawahs tonight in Eliminator 1

Sep 06, 2017 Sports

By Sean Devers in Trinidad in association with Noble House Sea Foods, Elegance Jewelry & Pawn Shop and Vnet communications

Runners-up three times in the five-year history of the CPL Guyana Amazon Warriors could go all the way this year but they must first defeat defending Champions Jamaica Tallawahs in the first Eliminator at the Brian Lara Stadium in South Trinidad from 20:00hrs tonight.
With a record of 30 wins and 21 losses from 52 matches including an emphatic win in their last game against the same opposition in Jamaica, the Warriors have gained momentum from a poor start and have started to peak at the right time.
They head into battle tonight on the back of four consecutive victories including a 99-run mauling of Tridents in Barbados and a brutal nine-wicket win with 9.3 overs to spare against Tallawahs.
When the teams last met on a hard bouncy Sabina Park track which favoured the home team’s pace quartet, a murderous unfinished 135-run partnership in 9.3 overs between Jamaican Chadwick Walton and Luke Ronchi, who played for both Australia and New Zealand, fired them into the play-offs.
The Warriors hold the physiological advantage tonight knowing that Tallawahs and CPL 2017’s leading wicket-taker (15) Kesrick Williams was battered for three sixes and four fours in two overs which cost 46 runs and their fastest

Steven Taylor bats in the nets as Steven Katwarroo awaits his turn.

bowler, 20-year-old Oshane Thomas conceded 32 including four sixes from two overs after he removed Sohail Tanvir for a duck in the first over.
Although the Warriors finished on 10 points with 5 losses and last among the four qualifiers, tonight’s pitch should favour their spinners as preliminary-round results become inconsequential.
The Tallawahs’ Coach will remind his charges that while the Warriors have been the most consistent team in CPL reaching three finals and two semi-finals, it was Tallawahs, the most successful team with two titles, who beat Guyana in the 2013 and 2016 finals.
Tonight’s atmosphere should be fantastic with a capacity crowd including thousands of Guyanese, witnessing what is anticipated to be a pulsating contest in the biggest party in Sports in the party capitol of the Caribbean.
Walton’s 382 runs is the most by any batsman and if he cuts lose tonight the fans could be in for a rollicking time but while Walton has three fifties only Jason Mohammed and Ronchi of the others have managed a half century for the Warriors.
Mohammed’s strike rate of 110.44 will not set the world on fire but with 275 runs he has been Warriors’ most consistent batsman while Ronchi, who replaced Martin Guptill, has played just twice but already looks threatening for opposition bowlers.
The trio along with the Guyanese pair of Assad Fudadin and Gajanand Singh, who both looked good before wasting starts, will need to do the bulk of the scoring with support from Kemo Paul, Tanvir, Roshan Primus and Emrit. Tanvir, although not the fastest mover in the field, has bowled brilliantly and sit jointly with Williams on top of the wicket takers list.
Emrit is joint second with Left-arm Tallawahs pacer Krismar Santokie with 13 each and along with Tanvir gives the Warriors a potent pace attack. Afghanistan teenaged leg-spinner Rashid Khan has 10 scalps and an economy rate of 5.61 and on a track expected to favor him should be Tallawahs’ biggest threat in the middle overs.
Spinners Veerasammy Permaul and Steven Jacobs should also enjoy the Brian Lara Stadium Track. Tallawahs batting will depend heavily on Skipper Sangakkara (322 runs) who plays in his 250th T20 game tonight and whose last four innings produced scores of 74 not out, 63, 69 and 38.
McCarty (278) and Lindl Simmons (222) are the other Tallawahs batsmen with over 200 runs while 20-year-old New Zealander Glenn Phillips already has a century and fours fifties from 18 T20 games and looks very accomplished.
Rovman Powell and Guyanese Jonathon Foo are the only other Tallawahs batsmen with 100 runs and both can hit the ball long and hard and have contributed crucial cameos for their team. While Walton ‘beat and teach’ Williams in Jamaica, the pacer has a knack for breaking partnerships and leads a four-prong pace attack which includes slower-ball specialist Santokie, 36-year-old Pakistani Mohammad Sami and Thomas with left-arm spinner Imad Wasim, off-spinner Mahmudullah and Gary Mathurin providing spin options.

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