A TOUGH on-field cricket examination awaits the Guyana Amazon Warriors when they meet tournament leaders, Trinbago Knight Riders in match 17 of the 2017 Hero Caribbean Premier League from noon today at Guyana’s National Stadium, Providence.

An inconsistent Warriors unit can expect little comfort against the tourists, who have had a great run in the tournament so far, winning five of their six games and sitting comfortably at the top of the table on ten points.
Going by the records this season, the match is expected to be an uneven contest with the tourists as clear favourites.
However, the unpredictable Warriors are at home, and no one should count them out, despite their heart-breaking two-run defeat on Thursday evening against the Jamaica Tallawahs.
The hosts’ primary headache is the lack of form for many of their key T20 players, resulting in the team’s miserable showing. They failed to find the form and with just one win from five games, they are hanging on to the fifth spot ahead of St Lucia Stars.
The Warriors have so far ridden on individual performances and haven’t been able to stitch a collective effort with the bat. Unless the batting starts clicking, their chances of qualifying for the playoffs will be severely dented.

Guptil cites positive mindset
Captain Martin Guptill, during a pre-match press conference yesterday at the Guyana Marriott Hotel in Georgetown, said that the mindset is to play positive cricket for the remainder of the season, adding that consistency must be the keyword.

“We can’t dwell about yesterday (Thursday) too much, that’s played and gone and we can’t change it, so we will have to look forward to another tough game against Trinbago. It’s always going to be a tough game whenever these two countries play and I think everyone will be looking forward to get out there tomorrow (today) and put on a good show,” the New Zealander pointed out.
He added, “Every game is a must-win if you really look at it … winning is a habit and gives you momentum, and so if we can get into the winning habits, starting from tomorrow (today), we are not out of this tournament as yet so if we start getting that momentum to roll tomorrow (today) with a win we can hopefully go all the way.
Guptill said while the fans are disappointed from Thursday’s defeat, the Warriors are a professional cricket team and Thursday night we didn’t quite get it right and we know that we have another opportunity tomorrow (today) to rectify what went wrong yesterday (Thursday) and make sure we put in a good performance”.

Tough task playing Guyana at home
On the other hand, Trinbago Knight Riders captain Dwayne Bravo acknowledged that playing Guyana at home is always a challenge.
“We all know playing Guyana in Guyana has always been difficult so we are aware of it, both teams are very similar in a lot of ways so we will not take them lightly,” Bravo said.
He added “Our challenge now is to see how good we can play away from home, yes in Trinidad we have that support and that comfort of playing in front of our home fans, but now we are on the road for the next four games so let’s see now best we can play”.
Further, Bravo dismissed social media rumours that Australia leg-spinner Adam Zampa has join the Trinbago Knight Riders for the remainder of the season.
Based on overall statistics, the two teams have faced each other on eleven times in the past with the Trinbago Knight Riders emerging victors on six of those occasions.