St Kitts and TKR are poles apart in the points table at the moment. While the former is sitting right down the bottom of the table, the latter is occupying the top spot with 7 wins out of 7 games.
The chances of St Kitts qualifying for the playoffs are not really high now as they have lost 6 games already. But, to still have any outside chance at the end, they need to win all their remaining three games and that’s not going to be an easy task, given the fact that they are up against TKR today.
Here are our fantasy cricket tips for match 23 of CPL 2020 –
Pitch Report
The pitch played decently in the first game yesterday, but it slowed down quite significantly in the evening and Barbados Tridents, who batted first in the second game, couldn’t even cross the score of 100.
The pitch isn’t expected to offer too much of pace to the bowlers in today’s game either and the captain winning the toss might like to bat first as the surface might get more and more difficult for stroke-play as the game goes on.
Predicted XI of both teams
Trinbago Knight Riders
Lendl Simmons, Sunil Narine, Colin Munro, Kieron Pollard(C), Darren Bravo, Tim Seifert (WK), Dwayne Bravo, Fawad Ahmed, Jayden Seales, Khary Pierre and Akeal Hosein
St Kitts and Nevis Patriots
Chris Lynn, Evin Lewis, Joshua de Silva, Denesh Ramdin (WK), Ben Dunk, Jahmar Hamilton, Jon Russ Jaggesar, Imran Khan, Ish Sodhi, Rayad Emrit (C) and Sohail Tanvir
Top picks
Joshua Da Silva was rated really highly ahead of the start of the CPL, but he couldn’t quite come to the party in the first few games that he played. However, he showed his true potential in the game against Guyana Amazon Warriors. Not only did he grind the team out of trouble first, he put his hitting abilities on show as well, as he drove St Kitts to a respectable total. The right-hander will be raring to go again.
Evin Lewis has played some big hits here and there in this CPL and has shown the glimpses of what he is capable of, but unlike in the past, he has not quite gone on and converted his starts into 70s or 80s which is the reason why St Kitts has been struggling to win games. Lewis, however, would want to change that going ahead and would want to bat till the 15th over mark in this game. If he does that, St Kitts is likely to be on top.
Kieron Pollard and Sunil Narine are the two players who have just run the show in this year’s CPL. While Narine has been bullying bowlers at the top of the order, Pollard has been doing that at no. 5 and no. 6 and it’s because of these two players that TKR is still unbeaten in the tournament despite having already played 7 games.
Jon-Russ Jaggesar and Fawad Ahmed are two completely different types of bowlers, but both are very effective. Jaggesar is not a big turner of the ball, but he gets that drop onto the batsman which makes it difficult for the batsman to drive him. Fawad bowls it a little quick through the air, but his strength is his wrong one. He has got really good control over his googly.
Captaincy pick: Evin Lewis
Vice-captaincy pick: Sunil Narine
Fantasy XI: Joshua Da Silva, Chris Lynn, Evin Lewis (C), Ben Dunk, Nick Kelly, Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine (VC), Alzarri Joseph, Jon-Russ Jaggesar, Fawad Ahmed
