Date: July 25, 2014
Venue: Bridgetown, Barbados
Start Time: 4 pm local (7 pm BST)
The 12th game of the Caribbean Premier League 2014 will see Barbados take on Antigua at Bridgetown. It’s almost reached the proportions of must-win for the visitors while a Barbados win will open up the points table in the race for the top-four spot.
Barbados Form
L-W-W
Barbados started off with a crushing defeat at the hands of Trinidad & Tobago in their first match, after scoring just 124 in their 20 overs. However, this was followed by back to back wins in their next two games, largely based on some thunderous batting performances.
They beat Antigua in their chase of 173 before crushing St. Lucia by 29 runs after posting 186/2 in their 20 overs.
Antigua’s Form
L-L-L-L
As the graphic above shows, theirs has been a no-form. Antigua’s campaign has been a non-starter with four successive defeats and unless they can change things around drastically, it looks highly unlikely they would be able to do much in the rest of the tournament.
Most importantly, the big question is whether they would be able to get going in this game against a side which is on a bit of a roll.
Antigua were edged out by Guyana in their opener, before the defending champions Jamaica crushed them by eight wickets and with 33 balls to spare. In their previous game, Antigua went down to Trinidad & Tobago by nine wickets and almost three overs to spare.
Their third match was the defeat to this same opponent, Barbados, in which they managed to pile up 172 but were out-batted by Shoaib Malik in their chase.
Key Players in the match
Dwayne Smith is a batsman that Antigua would love to get rid of as soon as they can, given he is so far the second-highest scorer in the competition, but equally dangerous is the blade of Malik, who is at number three in that same list.
A lot will depend on Marlon Samuels and Ben Dunk if they want to prop up Antigua, while Sheldon Cottrell will look to shine with the ball.
Betting advice
Difficult to put the money on Antigua here. Despite the narrow odds, I will be backing Barbados who are 1.53 to win this game and Malik at 4.5 to top-score for them.