Trinidad and Tobago will be well represented in today’s Limacol Caribbean Premier League Twenty20 final as T&T skipper Denesh Ramdin will lead the Guyana Amazon Warriors against T&T teammate Kieron Pollard, who captains the Barbados Tridents.
The two sides meet at Warner Park in St Kitts from 4 p.m. for the CPL title and a place in this year’s Champions League T20. The big-hitting Tridents, who boast T&T players Ravi Rampaul, Rayad Emrit, Akeal Hosein and William Perkins among its line-up, will be looking to replicate their group stage form and make the most of their week-long preparation.
However, the Warriors are equally confident following their demolition job of the Jamaica Tallawahs in the second semi-final on Thursday.
Ramdin’s team, which also includes T&T players Lendl Simmons (the leading run-scorer in the competition) mystery spinner Sunil Narine and pacer Navin Stewart, defeated the Tallawahs by ten wickets with more than five overs to spare to reach today’s final.
Pollard said they are up against a quality team and will have to be at their best if they want to come away with the trophy. “The Warriors played very well (Thursday night), but I am not worried. We will do our preparation and get ourselves ready for playing them, but we are going to concentrate on our strengths rather than worry too much about theirs,” said Pollard.
“They beat us at home a few weeks ago, so we know we will have to bring our ‘A Game’ on Saturday to win. They do have dangerous bowlers in the form of Narine and (Krishmar) Santokie, however, when the bad ball comes, we will look to capitalise on it and it should be an exciting match,” he added.
The Tridents also welcomed their week long break which was their reward for topping the six-team standings to book their place straight to the final. “Preparations have been good this week and we have welcomed the break after playing so many games in quick succession at the end of the group stages,” said Barbados Tridents coach, Robin Singh.
“We have some players who have done really well throughout the tournament such as Jason Holder and Kieron Pollard, but we will be looking to prepare all of our players to be their best in the final,” Singh added.
Ramdin said the Warriors are wary of the batting strength of the Tridents’ but is confident his bowlers can handle the pressure and deliver victory. “The Tridents have a very strong batting line up and the toss again will be crucial. There are two good teams in the final, both playing well, and whoever handles the pressure better, will win,” said Ramdin.
“Santokie and Narine have been bowling well so we will also be looking for them to carry their good form into tomorrow’s (today) match,” he added.
It is the second time the Warriors will be in the CPL final and they will be hoping to avoid making the same mistakes they made last year which saw them lose to the Tallawahs. “This time around we will be looking to produce our best cricket when it counts,” said Guyana Amazon Warriors coach Roger Harper.
“We will not necessarily be looking to do anything different to what we have done previously in the tournament, but we will think about the Barbados Tridents and fine tune our plans so we are ready,” Harper added.