This article will talk about the probable XIs for both teams and continue with the Dream11 predictions and the winning fantasy team for Match 5 of the CPL 2021 between Guyana Amazon Warriors and St Kitts & Nevis Patriots that is scheduled to take place on the 28th of August 2021.
The Guyana Amazon Warriors led by Nicholas Pooran are fresh off from defeating the defending champions Trinbago Knight Riders, will take on St Kitts & Nevis Patriots in their 2nd game of the league. This is the fifth match of the season and will be played at Warner Park, Basseterre, St Kitts.
GAW recorded a great win in their last game against the TKR by 9 runs thanks to complete team performance. Batting first, the Amazon Warriors could manage only 142/7 on a slow surface and the talented Shimron Hetmyer came to part scoring 54 from 41 and he had good support from Odean Smith who made 24. Defending a low target, the GAW bowlers Romario Shepard and Imran Tahir bowled brilliantly as they picked 5 wickets between them giving away just 27 runs in their 7 overs. This helped the Warriors restrict the Knight Riders to 133.
St Kitts and Nevis Patriots had a horrible season in 2020 but won their 1st game of the tournament this year as they beat Barbados Royals by 21 runs in a high-scoring game. Despite the top-order failure after they were put in to bat, the middle-order duo of Sherfane Rutherford(53), Dwayne Bravo(47) along with a cameo of 7-ball 12 from Fabien Allen took the team to 175/5. With the ball, it was Dominic Drakes who pulled the strings by ending with a miserly 2/13 to keep the Royals down to 154.
Match Details
Venue: Warner Park, Basseterre, St Kitts
Pitch and Weather: Likely to be a typical Caribbean pitch that will offer something to the bowlers and batsmen can score big once settled. We can’t expect a high-scoring affair and the scores could be in the range of 140-150 as we saw in the 1st game. No rain is expected on the match-day and the temperature will be around 30 with a partly cloudy sky.
Date & Time: August 28, 10 AM Local time, 7.30 PM IST
Probable Playing XIs
Despite the win, the Guyana Amazon Warriors will want to improve on some aspects. First, they would want their openers Brandon King and Chanderpaul Hemraj to give them a much better start than they did in the 1st game. Also the Pakistan veterans Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik had a disappointing outing with the bat which made fell short of a total they would have liked. Naveen-ul-Haq was way too expensive in that low-scoring game as he gave away 42 in his 4. But they would stick to the same team.
St Kitts and Nevis Patriots will also likely stick with the same that they field in their 1st game of the tournament. But they would want their top 3 which includes the destructive duo of Chris Gayle and Evin Lewis to fire.
Guyana Amazon Warriors
Nicholas Pooran (c), Shimron Hetmyer, Brandon King, Romario Shepherd, Chandrapaul Hemraj, Odean Smith, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Imran Tahir, Naveen-Ul-Haq, Ashmead Nedd
St Kitts and Nevis Patriots
Chris Gayle, Even Lewis, Sherfane Rutherford, Devon Thomas(WK), Asif Ali, Dwayne Bravo, Fabian Allen, Sheldon Cottrell, Dominic Drakes, Paul Van Meekeren, Fawad Ahmed.
Match Prediction
Guyana Amazon Warriors who are on the back of winning against the strong favorites, TKR will be going into this game with a lot of confidence. So expect them to make it 2 on the bounce on Saturday when they face the SKNP who have also won their last game.
Fantasy Tips
Batsmen: Shimron Hetmyer played a match-winning knock in the last game for the Warriors and showed why he is one of the dangerous batters in this format. So he is an obvious pick. Evin Lewis, despite his poor score in the last game, can be picked in the fantasy as he was the highest run-scorer for WI in their home series. Another player who can be selected is Sherfane Rutherford who scored a half-century last game which helped his team Patriots to win.
Wicket-Keeper: Nicholas Pooran is an obvious pick in any fantasy team if it is a T20 match. Though he got only 12 runs in the last game, Pooran is capable of scoring much more.
All-rounders: Odean Smith who showed his all-round skills in the last game can be selected. He scalped 2 wickets to go along with the 24 he made with the bat earlier in the innings. Fabian Allen is another player who can be picked along with veteran Dwyane Bravo. Both of them had a great opening game which eventually tilted the result in their favor.
Bowlers: Imran Tahir continued to get better in every game as he produced another excellent spell in the last game. So he can be picked as one of the bowlers. Romario Shepard had an impressive game against the TKR taking 3/15 which tilted the game in their favor. Dominic Drakes of SKNP took 2/13 from his 4 overs in the last game, so he is an ideal pick along with his teammate Sheldon Cottrell who is a genuine wicket-taker.
Captaincy Choices
Fantasy Team: Shimron Hetmyer, Evin Lewis(C), Sherfane Rutherford, Nicholas Pooran(VC), Odean Smith, Fabian Allen, Dwayne Bravo, Imran Tahir, Romario Shepard, Dominic Drakes, Sheldon Cottrell
Captain – Even Lewis
The SKNP opener is a prolific scorer in the shortest format of the game and usually scores big once settled. So he can be made the skipper of the side.
Captain: Nicholas Pooran
The left-handed keeper-batsman is one of the most dangerous T20 players in world cricket and is an ideal choice as the vice-captain of the fantasy team.