The emergence of the St Lucia Zouks in this year's Hero Caribbean Premier League T20 tournament has left the Trinbago Knight Riders in a dicey position.
With the top four teams entering into the play-offs, Jamaica Tallawahs, Guyana Amazon Warriors, Barbados Tridents and TKR were the top teams expected to enter the play-offs as they had done in all previous editions of the CPL.
However, the Zouks led by a re-energised Darren Sammy have now won their last three matches in succession and are now third in the standings, as we reach the business end of the tournament. They have played seven matches and have eight points, while TKR has played seven matches as well and they have six points.
The TKR has been in St. Lucia over the last three days going through their drills and they will be looking to put things right tonight at 7pm. They go into the clash with the knowledge that the Zouks defeated them in Port-of-Spain during their opening match of the tournament.
The Knight Riders are currently fifth in the standings and they know that from this point they are playing catch-up with the rest of the pack. A loss tonight against the Zouks would push them close to the edge of not making the play-offs.
Manager of the team Colin Borde believes that his team can do it: "We have prepared as best as we can, the boys have been working very hard over the last few days and they are fiercely focussed on the job at hand. At the end of the day, they know what needs to be done and they are taking each match as a finals and showing that intensity."
Standings
Teams Mat Won Lost Tied N/R Pts Net RR
Jamaica 8 6 1 0 1 13 +1.502
Tallawahs
Guyana 8 5 3 0 0 10 +0.017
Amazon Warriors
St Lucia Zouks 7 4 3 0 0 8 -0.050
Barbados 8 3 4 0 1 7 -0.184
Tridents
Trinbago 7 3 4 0 0 6 -0.102
Knight Riders
St Kitts and
Nevis Patriots 8 1 7 0 0 2 -1.022
teams
Trinbago Knight Riders: Dwayne Bravo (captain), Brendon McCullum, Sunil Narine, Hashim Amla, 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: Darren Sammy (capt), Johnson Charles, Andre Fletcher, David Miller, Shane Watson, Michael Hussey, Morne Morkel, Nitish Kumar, Derone Davis, Jerome Taylor, Eddie Lele, Keron Cottoy, Keddy Lesporis, Kyle Mayers, Delorn Johnson, Shane Shillingford, Gidron Pope.