CPL 2020: 2nd Semi-final- Guyana Amazon Warriors vs St Lucia Zouks - Preview, Live Streaming, Timings, Predicted XI, Stats, Pitch Report & more

The Guyana Amazon Warriors will lock horns with the St Lucia Zouks in the second semi-final of the CPL 2020, on 9th September, at the Brian Lara Cricket Stadium in Trinidad. The performance of both the teams is strikingly similar this year as they have won and lost the same number of matches and are only parted by the net run rate.

The Guyana Amazon Warriors have had their share of bad luck in the last season where they won 11 games straight only to lose the final. They have ended up as the runners up a staggering five times in the history of the league and they will certainly want to end on the right side of the result this time around. They have tried different things over the course of the tournament this year and have managed the team and bench quite well.

They are coming in the semi-final winning their last league encounter against the Barbados Tridents by six wickets. Their top-order has been a bit of a concern as openers Brandon King and Chandrapaul Hemraj have not been able to provide them the kind of starts that they were expected to. However, the likes of Nicholas Pooran, Ross Taylor, and their star performer Shimron Hetmyer have dragged their team through to the semi-finals.

The Zouks, on the other hand, are entering this match after defeating the Jamaica Tallawahs in their last league game. The tale of their top-order has not been too different than the Warriors, however, there have been a number of positives for them in the middle-order where youngster Mark Deyal has played his role quite well at No.3 and Roston Chase, Mohammad Nabi, and Najibullah Zadran all have consistently performed and contributed to their wins.

This contest happens to be most even and poised one of the tournament thus far, with nothing much to differentiate the two teams. They have fared equally in their head to head clashes this year as the Zouks defeated Warriors by 10 runs in their first meeting, whereas the Warriors had the better of them during their 7-wicket win in the second meet.

Pitch and Conditions

The spinners will once again dominate the proceedings in this game and all the more because this is the second encounter of the day. The new ball might favour the pacers a bit, and as the night games have seen quite unreasonably low scores and the batsmen will need to be cautious in their approach at the start.

Playing Combination

St Lucia Zouks

The Zouks have experimented a lot in their top-order slot as Rahkeem Cornwall and Andre Fletcher have not been amongst the runs this year. Mark Deyal, who has been sent at the top, has fared well for them and they might continue that strategy in this game.

Roston Chase, Najibullah Zadran, and Mohammad Nabi have done the majority of their scoring this year. They will be seen performing their duties in the middle-order and will be followed by Javelle Glen and skipper Darren Sammy in the lower-middle order. Scott Kuggeleijn and Kesrick Williams have been in form too and have picked up wickets constantly, however, their economies have been a slight concern at times.

Predicted XI- Rahkeem Cornwall, Mark Deyal, Andre Fletcher (WK), Roston Chase, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Darren Sammy (C), Javelle Glen, Kesrick Williams, Zahir Khan, Scott Kuggeleijn.

Bench- Saad Bin Zafar, Kavem Hodge, Chemar Holder, Kimani Melius, Leniko Boucher, Obed McCoy.

Guyana Amazon Warriors

The top-order woes have been persistent for the Warriors too as Brandon King and Chandrapaul Hemraj have been highly inconsistent and have not been able to provide a start to their team this year. Both of them would desperately want to make it count in the all-important knockout clash today. Keemo Paul should certainly play ahead of Shane Rutherford, who has had a poor run this year.

Shimron Hetmyer has been their most consistent performer and the team will need him to make an impact in today’s game. Nicholas Pooran made a disappointing start to the tournament but has got his form back well after some free-flowing knocks and he will constitute the middle-order alongside veteran Ross Taylor. Skipper Chris Green has been in decent form whereas Naveen-ul-Haq and Imran Tahir have constantly bagged wickets too.

Predicted XI- Brandon King, Chandrapaul Hemraj, Shimron Hetmyer, Nicholas Pooran (WK), Ross Taylor, Kevin Sinclair, Sherfane Rutherford/Keemo Paul, Chris Green (C), Romario Shepherd, Naveen-ul-Haq, Imran Tahir.

Bench- Odean Smith, Anthony Bramble, Ashmead Nedd, Jasdeep Singh, Kissoondath Magram, Sherfane Rutherford/Keemo Paul

Head to Head

Matches Played- 21 | Guyana Amazon Warriors Won-12 | St Lucia Zouks Won- 8 | NR- 1

Broadcast Details

Match Timings- 3:00 AM (IST), 5:30 PM (Local).

TV– Star Sports 1, Star Sports 2, Star Sports 1 Hindi, Star Sports 1 HD, Star Sports 2 HD, and Star Sports 1 HD Hindi.

Live Streaming– The match can be streamed online on Fancode.