Trinbago Knight Riders v St Kitts & Nevis Patriots CPL Tips: Patriots in danger of a hammering

• TKR expected to dominate

• Batting flop incoming at Tarouba

• Patriots short of experienced operators

• Pooran time at 11/43.75

Trinbago Knight Riders v St Kitts & Nevis Patriots
Monday 1 September, 16.00
TV: Live on TNT

Trinbago Knight Riders v St Kitts & Nevis Patriots team news

Trinbago Knight Riders look like going head-to-head with St Lucia Kings for league leaders. The former dominant force in the tournament produced a strong effort to down Guyana on Saturday. And all without meaningful contribution from star man Nic Pooran.

Big knocks from Alex Hales and Colin Munro are taking the pressure off the middle order, though. And with Andre Russell now fit TKR look well-balanced. Apart from Mohammad Amir and McKenny Clarke they are pretty much going with pace-off bowling options. 

Probable TKR XI:  Hales, Munro, Pooran, carty, Pollard, russell, Akeal, Narine, Hinds, Amir, McKenny Clarke

Patriots are grateful for horrible Barbados Royals form for keeping them off the bottom but two straight defeats suggests hopes of a resurgence were shortlived. They took a bad beating against Kings, not even laying a glove on them when defending 178, losing with three overs to spare having taken only three wickets and when the game was up, too.

Mohammad Rizwan top scored at a decent lick but he's just not the sort of player you want at No 3 when scoring rates are so high. They look dreadfully light on experience batting options after No 6.

Probable Patriots XI:  Lewis, Fletcher, Rizwan, Mayers, Holder, Athanzae, Bidaisee, Goolie, Abbas, Naseem, Salmkheil

Trinbago Knight Riders v St Kitts & Nevis Patriots pitch report

The CPL is a tournament of extremes, as witnessed by Kings chasing 205 against Falcons on Sunday without breaking a sweat. But could this be a game for extremes the other way? tarouba is not a road like Gros islet and there are fears tha the Patriots batting could get rolled at some point. Against a crack TKR side in the field, they could really struggle. Going unders on the runs line if Patriots bat first at 110, 115 and 120 is a fair strategy. Failing that, unders 162.5 total runs for Patriots with Sportsbook at 5/61.84 is fair. 

Trinbago Knight Riders v St Kitts & Nevis Patriots match prediction

An early show has TKR 1.491/2 favourites for this one. That is no surprise. Although Trinbago have a stinker in them sometimes (they have already lost to falcons) it is hard to justify a speculative gamble on Patrots here and the smart money will be on a quick kill.

If there was any semblance of a foothold for a bat-first Patriots, or in other words a drift to 1.705/7 on Trinbago, it is fill your boots time. We would back TKR to chase anything against Patriots who are a poor side. But that seems forlorn as discussed in the pitch report. 

Trinbago Knight Riders v St Kitts & Nevis Patriots player bets

There's still no win for Pooran, who came into the tournament with one of the best top-bat win rates in the competition. The 11/43.75 is still out of line with how often he wins. Surely he picks up one, soon? We're not put off by that duck last time out. For Patriots, Evin Lewis is due a score and although the 7/24.50 doesn't scream value he is a reliable follow a couple of times per season. 

Now read the best cricket Tips here!