St Lucia Zouks (SLZ) take on Jamaica Tallawahs (JT) in Match 24 of the 2019 Caribbean Premier League (CPL) at the Darren Sammy National Cricket Stadium, Gros Islet, St Lucia. The Zouks have just five points from their eight games and need to win both their remaining games, starting with this one in a bid to finish in the top four. Tallawahs on the other hand lie at the bottom of the table with four points from eight games. Not only do Jamaica need to win their two remaining matches, but need some of the other results going in their favour as well. 

SLZ and JT met earlier in the season as well, which resulted in an easy five-wicket win for the Zouks, which was their first win against Jamaica after losing four in a row to them. 

Ground Details and Team Combination 

Spin will play a crucial role once again and at the same time, there is scope for the batsmen to play their shots, like how Colin de Grandhomme and Brandon King showed in the previous match at the venue. Spin has been used at this venue as a containing option, but they have been handy in chipping in with wickets at crucial junctures. The spinners have picked up 16 wickets 28.81 and they have struck once every 20.8 deliveries at Gros Islet, which are not particularly good numbers compared to other grounds this season. The pacers at this venue have been slightly better and have managed to pick up 24 wickets at 24.41 at a strike-rate of 17.5. 

It has been difficult to get boundaries at this ground. It has a boundary percentage of 14.34, only behind Barbados where 13.84 boundaries are scored every 100 deliveries. Also, the Darren Sammy National Cricket Stadium has seen the highest dot ball percentage (38.7) compared to all other grounds this season. Rotation of strike is going to be key here. 

The batting rate at St Lucia against pace has been 7.94, while it dips to 6.86 against spin. Hence, it will be a good idea to load your team with spinners. 

Captain 

The leading run-scorer in CPL 2019 Glenn Phillips has been terrorizing bowlers in the tournament. With a strike-rate of 151.20 in the powerplays and 150.54 in the middle-overs, Phillips is a dangerous player to have at the top. He has scored 40 or more in five of his previous six innings and it is difficult to think of anyone else for the choice of captain, based on current form and consistency. However, he will have to be wary while playing spinners as his strike-rate dips to 111.53 against them when compared to his strike-rate against pacers, which is 172.34. 

X-Factors 

Rahkeem Cornwall scored a blistering 30-ball 75 against Jamaica earlier this month and would love to replicate a similar performance against the same opposition once again. Since then, he has reached double figures just once in five innings. With a striker-rate of 202.66 this season in the first six overs, he is on top of the pile when it comes to openers, who have faced at least 50 balls in the powerplays.

22-year-old Obed McCoy is one of the leading wicket-takers in the tournament, having picked up nine wickets at 16.77. Though his economy rate of 8.08 is a tad on the higher side he picks up a wicket every 12.4 deliveries, which can be threat. Also, he has gone wicketless just once in the tournament so far. 

Fawad Ahmed has been impressive this season, having picked up nine wickets at 19.22 apiece. What is staggering about him is that he has an economy rate of 6.65, which is among the best in the tournament this season. He has managed to pick up at least one wicket in six of the seven innings he has bowled in and given that there could be a lot of assistance for spinners on this pitch, Ahmed could very well be the game-changer. 

Weather 

There could be some rain-interruption for this match. However, we should still have at least a shortened game, which will yield a result. 

Suggested FanFight team 

Chris Gayle, Glenn Phillips, Chadwick Walton, Colin Ingram, Rahkeem Cornwall, Colin de Grandhomme, Fawad Ahmed, Obed McCoy, Hardus Viljoen, Zahir Khan Shamar Springer