Match 29 of the 2019 Caribbean Premier League (CPL) will be played between Guyana Amazon Warriors and Jamaica Tallawahs at the Providence Stadium on Thursday (October 3).

Warriors have been unbeaten so far and have played some extraordinary cricket in this tournament. Meanwhile, Tallawahs are placed at the rock bottom on the points table but will look to end their season on a high. The last time these two sides came face to face this season, Warriors smashed Tallawahs by 81 runs.

Ground Details and Team Combination

Providence Stadium has hosted three games so far this season and Warriors have emerged victorious on all those three occasions. The surface here has something for both pacers and spinners. While fast bowlers have taken 24 wickets here this season at an economy of 8.5, spinners have scalped 14 wickets at the expense of 7.1 runs per over.

In Chris Green, Imran Tahir, Qais Ahmad and Shoaib Malik, Warriors have a solid in-form spin attack and they will fancy their chances against Tallawahs who haven’t been able to perform to their potential. The home team might bring Qais back in the playing XI, while Tallawahs can go back to someone like Oshane Thomas or Jade Dernbach who can turn out to be wicket-taking options at this venue.

Captaincy Suggestion

Imran Tahir: The legspinner has only played five games so far this season but has managed to take 10 wickets. Tahir will enjoy bowling at this surface where legspinners have operated at an economy of just over 7 this season. The South African legspinner has picked up two wickets in each of the five games he has played. He was Man of the Match when these two teams collided earlier in this edition. Tallawahs have quite a few big hitters in their side but Tahir has managed to induce 40.1% error shots.  

X-Factors

Shoaib Malik: The skipper has been the glue for Warriors in both the bowling and batting department. Malik doesn’t have outstanding numbers but the 37-year-old has chipped in both departments whenever his team has needed him to. He has managed 180 runs this season at an average of 60 and has also picked up three wickets at an economy of 5.50 in the five innings that he has bowled.

Brandon King & Chandrapaul Hemraj: The two openers have been very consistent for Warriors this season. If we take out the first game, there hasn’t been a single match where at least one of them has scored anything less than 39. Both these two batsmen have scored over 250 runs, and Hemraj has also chipped in with the bowl in hand in three encounters. King slams a boundary every 4.7 deliveries, while Hemraj does in every 5.2 deliveries. Picking both of them in the playing XI would be ideal.

Glenn Phillips: With 353 runs to his name, Phillips is competition’s highest run-getter. If we take out his first two innings this season, not once the wicketkeeper-batsman has been dismissed for a score below 23. However, he will have to be wary while playing spinners as his strike-rate dips to 117.28 against them when compared to his strike-rate against pacers, which is 173.15.

Weather

It’s going to be partly cloudy in Guyana, with very minimal rain chances.

Suggested FanFight team

Brandon King, Chandrapaul Hemraj, Glenn Phillips, Shimron Hetmyer, Shoaib Malik, Liton Das, Romario Shepherd, Chris Green, Imran Tahir, Imran Khan, Oshane Thomas.