The Guyana Amazon Warriors will play their first home game of the 2017 edition of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) against the Jamaican Tallawahs this evening at 6:00 pm at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence.
The home side, winners of only one of their four matches so far, will be seeking to avenge their loss in last year’s final to the Jamaican franchise, and begin their ascent of the points table.
Ahead of their crucial four game home stand, Skipper Martin Guptill, at the end of the team’s final net session yesterday morning, said that his side is pretty excited about what is to come, despite being ahead of only the St. Lucia Stars on the points table.
“They’re all pretty excited about getting into it [home games]”, the Kiwi opening batsman said, while adding,
“They know what needs to be done and they are all professional cricketers. They’ve trained well over the last two days and they are excited about what’s coming up. Four home games in front of the Guyanese crowd, you know, you can’t ask for much better than that, so we are all looking forward to getting out there.”
Guptill, the fifth placed Warriors’ second most expensive player this season behind Sohil Tanvir, has had a modest outing so far, scoring only 70 runs from three innings, with a top score of 24.
The opener, however, is not too worried about his form and plans to do what has made him successful in his career.
“Yeah, I just have to go out and watch the ball and just do what I can do and back my ability and back what I’ve done in the last couple of years that has made me so successful.”
Touching on the impact Guyanese Gajanand Singh has had on the team thus far, Guptill said: “He’s done very well, we asked him to play a certain role and he’s been doing that extremely well and hopefully he continues that for the rest of the tournament.”
Meanwhile, Paul Nixon, head coach of the third place Tallawahs said that his side is confident heading into today’s encounter, while lauding the efforts of batsman, Andre McCarthy, and bowler, Kesrick Williams.
The Tallawahs, who have won three of their four matches to date, will have a slight psychological edge heading into today’s match, the first encounter between the two sides this season, after crushing the South American franchise by nine wickets in last year’s finals.
The two teams have met on 12 occasions since the league’s inception, with the Warriors holding a slight six-five advantage, with one match abandoned in the 2015 season. However, two of the Tallawahs’ victories have been in the CPL Finals, the inaugural edition in 2013 and last year.
Today’s encounter promises to be a riveting affair, owing to the fierce rivalry the two sides have developed over the years.
