By Prior Beharry
THE Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) must win their last match of the group stage against the Guyana Amazon Warriors (GAW) from 7 pm on Saturday if they are to qualify for the playoff stages of the 2022 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL).
The Warriors will be playing at home at Providence Stadium in East Demerara, Guyana, and will want to forget the 26-run defeat imposed on them by TKR at the Queen’s Park Oval on September 14.
TKR sit at the bottom of the table on seven points and a win will take them to nine above St Kitts and Nevis Patriots who have ended their campaign on eight.
Jamaica Tallawahs and St Lucia Kings each play their last game on Sunday against one another. Both are on eight points. It means that once the game takes place, barring weather, one of these teams will move to second spot on the table with ten points and the other will remain with eight.
The Barbados Royals have already topped the standings with 16 points with one game in hand and play the Warriors 24 hours after they take on TKR. Warriors now have seven points and a win on either Saturday or Sunday will take them into the playoffs.
The first qualifier takes place on Tuesday at 10 am where the top-of-the-table Royals take on the team finishing second. The winner goes through to the finals while the loser plays the winner of the third and fourth place teams for a spot in the championship game.
Speaking after losing to the Patriots on Thursday, TKR captain Kieron Pollard said, “It is a must-win game for us and it is obviously going to be a packed stadium and we look forward to it.”
The Warriors have the highest score of 195 for four this season when they beat the St Lucia Kings on Thursday. TKR in the loss to Patriots got their highest total of 156 for 7.
Pollard said, “This is why we play cricket, for games like these and we’ve just got to stand up and make ourselves be counted so let’s see what happens on Saturday.
Standings
- Barbados Royals 16 points – one game remaining;
- St Lucia Kings 8 points – one game remaining;
- Jamaica Tallawahs 8 points – one game remaining;
- St Kitts and Nevis Patriots 8 points – zero games remaining;
- Guyana Amazon Warriors 7 points – two games remaining;
- Trinbago Knight Riders 7 points – one game remaining.
