CARIBBEAN PREMIER LEAGUE: Our cricket tipster The Edge previews the Caribbean Premier League Final on Thursday between Trinbago Knight Riders v St Lucia Zouks with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
BETDAQ, the global betting exchange, has announced that it will be going commission-free across all sports on Saturday. In what is one of the biggest days in the sporting calendar, ‘Super Saturday’ will see the start of the new Premier League season as well as top-class horse racing from both sides of the Irish sea, with the final Classic of the season, the St Leger, taking centre stage at Doncaster, and showstopping Group 1 action at Leopardstown.The Edge has been a professional cricket trader for over 12 years, and we are delighted to have his columns on BETDAQ Tips. He provides his best bets on a points scale between 1 and 5, with 5 being a rare max bet.
Because we see so much action in-running on cricket, he will also provide some in-running strategies that could develop in-play and lead to some excellent value bets. The Edge covers all forms of cricket: Test Matches, ODI’s and T20’s but his favourite competition is the Indian Premier League each season.
MATCH OVERVIEW:
After a month of action packed drama, we are down to two teams in the Caribbean Premier League. Both sides have had very different experiences throughout the tournament and we should have an excellent game. Hopefully it lasts longer than the semi-finals! Trinbago won by nine wickets in 15 overs, while the Zouks won by ten wickets in 4.3 overs.
We had two brutally dominant performances from these two on Tuesday. Trinbago kept Jamaica down to 107/7 while the Zouks bowled out Guyana for 55. That was an incredible performance from the Zouks bowlers who haven’t really displayed anything like that up to now. Guyana have a small excuse in the sense that they finished their league games a little earlier than the others and had a longer gap without playing, however they knew what conditions were like and they just didn’t perform.
Trinbago retained their unbeaten record while brushing aside Jamaica. That was to be expected really given how the teams shaped up on paper. They will be hoping to not repeat what Guyana did last season – go the whole tournament unbeaten apart from the Final!
WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:
Trinbago will be pleased with the early start as they have plenty of experience playing in the early game. They have record some of the highest scores of the tournament when batting first in the early game. We saw some very low scores on Tuesday after a pretty good weekend for batting. I would suggest we see reasonably ok batting conditions here – although definitely take the first three overs to see what conditions are like. Batting has been easier in the early game compared to the late game – so I would suggest par is around 150.
Unfortunately we have had some weather worries with the early games. We’ve only lost one game, but we’ve had rain interfere in a handful of games. There’s been no rain worries in the late games so I’m surprised by the early start; but it’s just a case of watching the radar. It’s rainy season in the West Indies and usually the showers are short and sharp – however the day we lost the game the outfield turned into a lake very quickly!
RECOMMENDED BET:
The Zouks have surprised me this season as they have improved a lot from last year. Trinbago have easily dealt with them twice this season though and with their spinners in excellent form along with a superb batting line-up I’m happy to back them at 1.5 here. We have landed some nice bets with Trinbago this season, and hopefully we can cap off a successful tournament with another winner.
The Edge Says:
Two points win Trinbago Knight Riders to beat St Lucia Zouks at 1.5 with BETDAQ Exchange.
View the market here -> http://bit.ly/BDQTriZou
IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:
The first three overs should be taken to look at batting conditions and go from there. In the two games when the sides faced off this season, the Zouks batted first at Queen’s Park Oval and Trinbago had them 111/6 after 17.1 overs when rain came to end the innings. Trinbago chased down the DLS target in eight overs. Then when Trinbago batted first here last week they posted 175/5 and kept the Zouks down to 152/7.
Trinbago have been excellent with the bat when batting first, and I would be very happy to support them. So far the tournament has produced good trades when backing the bowling side in the first innings, but this hasn’t proven the case when Trinbago bat first. They have set some of the highest scores in the tournament.
To be honest, it’s hard to find a weak point when it comes to Trinbago. They have been excellent throughout the tournament with bat and bowl. The Zouks batting is definitely stronger than their bowling, even if they bowled Guyana out for 55 on Tuesday!
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