T20 World Boss Chris Gayle will lead his St Kitts & Nevis Patriots into battle against his old franchise Jamaica Tallawahs with a red-hot Andre Russell in-form as Match 8 of the 2018 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) bowls off tonight at Sabina Park in Jamaica’s capital city.
Chris Gayle
The Tallawahs won the title twice under Gayle and with the left-hander now giving his services to another franchise, it will be important to see how the Tallawahs approach the in-form Gayle at the top of the order. Jamaica will have a number of options in their bowling department with left-arm seamer Krishmar Santokie, Windies pacer Kemar Roach, Aussie spinner Adam Zampa, Pakistan spinning all-rounder Imad Wasim and others.
Before last night’s game at Sabina Park against the St Lucia Stars, the Tallawahs showed their depth in bowling and batting with superman Andre “Dre Russ” Russell clobbering 13 sixes in his whirlwind ton down the order to which he added to his hat-trick against defending champions Trinbago Knight Riders last Friday night in Port of Spain.
Kenar Lewis also cashed in with a fifty in the opening game in support to his captain while big guns like Glen Phillips, Johnson Charles, Ross Taylor, Rovman Powell and Andre McCarthy will also look to contribute with the bat in this colossal match up. The former champs will also want to capitalize on their wining start in order to keep the momentum going.
Andre Russell
Gayle’s men will also look to continue the celebration after bouncing back from defeat to the Guyana Amazon Warriors in Match two to blow away TKR in match five by a whopping 42 runs. Gayle, who made 86 versus the Guyana Amazon Warriors in the first match, is in good hitting form while his teammates who missed out in Guyana but made amends against TKR will look to continue in the same manner.
All-rounder Carlos Brathwaite smoked 41 off 15 with four and five big sixes at the back end of the innings to get his form with the bat going. Middle-order batsman Devon Thomas warmed up with a half-century while overseas power-hitting all-rounder Ben Cutting continued to show glimpses of savagery after a brief start in Guyana.
The Patriots will bank on their pair of Windes pacers in Alzarri Joseph and Sheldon Cottrell while overseas player Mahmudullah Riyad of Bangladesh offers much with his spin and should bowl well in tandem with Nepalese spinner Sandeep Lamichhane who is also in good form with the ball. Brathwaite, Tom Cooper, Anton Devcich and Cutting are all good second options for Gayle against the talented Jamaican side at home.
Last the time these two sides met in Hero CPL 2017, it ended in a 1-1 result with Jamaica losing the first encounter before beating the Patriots in their final match of last season’s tournament. Playing at home in Kingston should favour Gayle while the original home team should also be quite knowledgeable of the environment as to properly prepare for the visiting Patriots. The first ball is set to bowl off at 18:00h (19:00h Guyana time).
