Tridents should be scared

TRINBAGO Knight Riders (TKR) top order batsman Colin Munro, said Barbados Tridents need to be wary if the TT franchise hit their straps in qualifier two (semifinals), of the 2019 Hero Caribbean Premier League, at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy, in Tarouba, at 7 pm tonight.

Tonight is a virtual semi-final, as the winner will advance to play the unbeaten Guyana Amazon Warriors in the final at 5 pm, on Saturday, at the same venue. Both TKR and Tridents will have their eyes on the weather as TT is currently under an adverse weather alert because of an Inter Tropical Convergence Zone. Rain is expected to affect TT until 6 pm, today. The Tridents will qualify for the finals if the match is washed out because it finished higher than TKR in the preliminaries. Tridents finished second and TKR ended fourth.

The Tridents lost its first opportunity to advance to the final, after falling by 30 runs to the Amazon Warriors at Providence Stadium, Guyana in qualifier one, on Sunday.

The Tridents will be a confident bunch heading into tonight’s contest, after defeating TKR both times the teams faced off during the preliminary stage.

After winning its first four matches to start the tournament, TKR lost momentum and lost five of its remaining six matches in the preliminaries. One of the matches in the win-less streak was a no result against St Lucia Zouks.

TKR ended its rotten run of form with a six-wicket win over St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, at Providence, in the eliminator, on Sunday.

Munro said the other teams need to be wary of TKR if the unit plays to its fullest potential. “I think for us it is pretty scary for the other teams if we hit our straps. I don’t think we have played anywhere near our best cricket, so if we come out tomorrow (today) and play our best cricket we know that we could put any team away. Whether that’s Guyana who has won ten from ten or 11 from 11, whatever it is. (If) we make sure that we can do our basics well and for longer periods of time, we will be able to put on a contest against anyone.”

Munro knows that Tridents have won twice against TKR, but the left-hander is optimistic of a turn around. “Obviously we have not played our best cricket against them this year, but (it’s) finals cricket now. We are back home in front of our home fans, so hopefully we can put on a good show and get to the final against Guyana.”

TKR’s top order has struggled as only opener Lendl Simmons has found consistency. “I think the way Lendl has played has been outstanding. We just need someone in our top four to help him out and then obviously we got so much power through our batting line up that if we can get off to good starts, it just let’s them come in and do what they do best at the lower order.”

Narine has missed a number of matches this season because of a finger injury, but returned to take 2/10 in four overs against Patriots on Sunday. Narine is still suffering, but is expected to be in the starting XI for the knock-out match tonight.

On the importance of Narine to any team, left-arm spinner Pierre said, “He (Narine) is a world class player, any team will want him on their team and in their final XI. He proved in the game against St Kitts how crucial he is to our team, so very happy that he could be playing for us again.”