THE EDGE: Our cricket tipster The Edge previews Thursday’s Caribbean Premier League clash between St Lucia Kings v Trinbago Knight Riders with a recommended BETDAQ bet.

MATCH OVERVIEW:

The Caribbean Premier League is here! We have an exciting month ahead on BETDAQ Betting Exchange, and hopefully it’s a good month for trading too. Some of the games from the CPL are at unsocial hours in the UK – we start at midnight with Jamaica Tallawahs v St Kitts & Nevis Patriots but St Lucia Kinga v Trinbago Knight Riders is at a much better time – 3pm in the UK! The West Indies launched a new cricket tournament just before the CPL this season – the 6ixty which was basically a ten over tournament between the same teams. While that tournament had a lot of odd rules, it’s definitely something we’re going to see more of, but it did give the sides a good lead into this tournament.

Trinbago Knight Riders made it to the final of the 6ixty but lost to St Kitss & Nevis Patriots. Kieron Pollard will captain Trinbago – he’s been busy this month playing in The Hundred in England and there is plenty of clashes. Sunil Narine left The Hundred to play the 6ixty, while Andre Russell has been performing well in The Hundred. With all their stars available, Trinbago definitely look like a strong side this season. Over the years of this tournament, St Lucia have had a few different names but in general they haven’t been a major side. They haven’t got much domestic talent and that has cost them. Faf du Plessis stands out when you look at their squad but in general I think it will be another poor season for them. Let’s see how they get on though, it’s exciting to start the CPL!

WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:

We’re in Warner Park and this ground saw plenty of action recently with the 6ixty. Indeed, the whole tournament was here. The CPL is definitely a tournament to keep an open mind on the scoring – we can have dew in the later games but we also see a range of scores at each venue throughout the tournament. I wouldn’t go into a game expecting a very high or low score, unless the data is clearly pointing in that direction as the tournament goes on. We saw some pretty high scores here in the 6ixty towards the end of the tournament after starting with low scores. The wickets might be tired at some stage here, and I would expect to see tough conditions as the tournament goes on. For today, I am completely open minded!

RECOMMENDED BET:

The St Lucia Kings look like the whipping boys to me on paper. Their squad is paper thin, and if I was the West Indies board I’d try beef up their squad with more domestic talent. As it stands, they lack a lot of quality with the bat and ball, and you have to feel that Trinbago will have to play poorly not to win here. They have a huge amount of talent with the bat and ball, very strong domestic players and will be too strong for St Lucia. I’m going to keep stakes limited here because the 1.58 doesn’t jump off the page, but there’s still a small amount of value.

The Edge Says:
One point win Trinbago Knight Riders to beat St Lucia Kings at 1.58 with Betdaq Exchange.

View the market here -> https://betdaq.biz/StlTri

IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:

It’s hard to be fully confident in any in-running strategy without fully trusting conditions here. I think it will be easier to form set in-running strategies when we get a view of conditions as the tournament goes on. I definitely want to be against the St Lucia batting and bowling throughout the tournament – I can see a 1.01 train here given how strong Trinbago are so maybe not too much trading here, but there’s no body major from Trinbago that I want to take on either. Sometimes the best trade is no trade, but I do feel Trinbago will win easier here.