Defending champions TKR will be hoping to stop the St. Lucia Zouks tonight, when they meet in the second play off of the 2016 Hero CPL T20 tournament in St. Kitts at 7pm.
The Zouks finished ahead of TKR at the preliminary stage of the tournament. After big wins over Jamaica at Broward County, they finished their campaign with a 6-4 win-loss record and 12 points. The TKR had a 5-5 record and 10 points. The winner of tonight's clash will play the loser of last night's first play of, which pitted Guyana Amazon Warriors and Jamaica Tallawahs.
TKR wicketkeeper/batsman Denesh Ramdin says that the Zouks have some heavy hitters and his side is aware of this :"We are coming up against a Zouks team that is packed with some big hitters and it is a small ground. We have a plan for them and once we can execute on the day, all should go well.
"We have a very good team, the players all have experience playing the format all over the world, so pressure matches like these is not really a problem for us. We all know what we are capable of and what we have to do, as individuals to be successful."
Ramdin was promoted in the order against the St. Kitts/Nevis Patriots in the last game and scored an unbeaten half century to lead the TKR to a win. He likes the position batting at three but will do whatever the team needs :"I was comfortable coming in at that position to bat and will like to do it again, having all those overs to play with but I am part of a team and will do whatever it takes to make my team win.
"If asked to do a similar job against the Zouks in the play-offs I will be willing and ready. I know the ground well, I have done well here and my form is pretty good at the moment."
Ramdin was left out of the West Indies team for the current Test series against India, after scoring two half centuries in the recently concluded tri-series in the Caribbean.
Meanwhile, Darren Sammy says that TKR is always a dangerous team and his boys will be looking to be at the top of their game to ensure a victory. "The Knight Riders are a good team, they showed us that by defeating us at home. We have however put that behind us and we are looking forward to this play off. The team is really playing well at the moment and our senior players are putting their hands up. There are some areas where we can still improve and we are working on that but I must say I am happy at where we are right now.
"This is a big game a virtual final and we will go into the match with that mindset, looking to get over this hurdle and unto the next."
Ticket sales for the match at this small Warner Park is going well and the CPL bug has well and truly caught on here."
Teams:
Trinbago Knight Riders Squad:
Dwayne Bravo (captain), Brendon McCullum, Sunil Narine, Umar Akmal, Kevon Cooper, Sulieman Benn, Colin Munro, Denesh Ramdin, Anton Devcich, Ronsford Beaton, Nikita Miller, William Perkins, Yannick Cariah, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Hamza Tariq, Anderson Phillip.
St Lucia Zouks Squad:
Johnson Charles, Andre Fletcher (wk), Shane Watson, David Miller, Grant Elliot, Darren Sammy (c), Mike Hussey, Gidron Pope, Delorn Johnson, Shane Shillingford, Jerome Taylor.