By Clifton Ross

A VACANT title, a former champion and a group of relentless Warriors now set the stage for possibly the biggest and most highly-anticipated final in Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) history; set to bowl off this evening at Brian Lara Cricket Academy, Trinidad.
Barbados Tridents captain Jason Holder and his men held their nerve to knock out the defending champs Trinbago Knight Riders, who missed their shot at the final by 12 runs, following Thursday night’s thriller under lights.

Tridents now face an uphill task should they have realistic plans to reclaim the title, having once beaten the Warriors a few seasons ago under weather-oriented circumstances. They now square off against the most dangerous team in this year’s tourney, and a side who have been waiting patiently for their opponents ever since qualifying for the cup many moons ago.

The 11-0 Warriors have been on a rampage and should their records against Tridents hold up, it could be a tea party for the Guyana franchise. The in-form opener Chandrapaul Hemraj and his partner Brandon King will strike fear into the opponents without a shadow of a doubt, following the latter’s phenomenal season and his 132 which shattered the record books in Providence last week.

Withstanding King’s factoring presence, the likes of Shimron Hetmyer will be under the scope following his mixed tournament. The left-hander could show up tonight especially after racking up seven individual scores under 10 from his last 7 matches played.

The Warriors frontline all-rounders in Sherfane Rutherford, Romario Shepherd, Keemo Paul and Chris Green will make skipper Shoaib Malik rest easy as they have been major X-factors in both departments. Green, Shepherd, Paul will also lend ideal support to the veteran leg-spinner Imran Tahir who will play a big role with the ball.

Tridents will be in high spirits following their big win over TKR. The lion’s share of the work was done by the bowlers in the end who did a sterling job on ensuring that 160 was easily defended. Leading wicket-taker Hayden Walsh Jr ended with another good haul, snatching up 2 wickets.

Holder will rely on Walsh, Englishman Harry Gurney, off-spinner Ashley Nurse, left-arm seamer Raymon Reifer and the world-ranked spin of Bangladesh’s Shakib Al-Hasan. Tridents signalled their intentions with the ball as all of their bowlers, except Shakib who qualifies for a pass; returned two wickets in the match against TKR.

Given the history between these two franchises and how track records played in favour of the Tridents when they beat TKR heading into the game, having already gained a 2-0 win over the former champs this season.

The last time Tridents beat the Warriors was way back in 2018 when Reifer bagged 5-20, ever since the Warriors have been running roughshod over Holder’s men and could likely dismantle them for yet another time to clinch their maiden title after failing in 4 finals.
Weather permitting, 2019 CPL final will bowl off at 17:00hrs.