The Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) the pre-tournament favourites at the 2019 Hero CPL has been without a win in their last two matches will get an opportunity to turn things around and add to their previous four victories to date.
The TKR will come up against the Barbados Tridents at the Kensington Oval, Barbados on Thursday from 6 pm. The home team is under pressure after losing to lowly Jamaica Tallawahs in their last game on Sunday night at home.
TKR has nine points from six matches and a victory on Thursday will earn the team a place in the play-offs. They have won four matches, lost one and the last encounter against the St. Lucia Zouks ended in a no-result after the rain came with the Zouks 99/4 after 12.2 overs.
The Tridents, on the other hand, have won two of their six matches, losing four and they are in 5th position with only Tallawahs below them.
The TKR has been boosted by the addition of the Barbados-born England fast bowler Chris Jordan. He has joined the TKR as a replacement for Pakistani Muhammad Hasnain who was sent back to Pakistan a week ago.
Jordan who played for England against the West Indies earlier this year during the Colonial Medical Insurance Cup in the West Indies brings a lot of experience to the fast bowling set up at the TKR.
The 30-year old last played for England against Pakistan in May this year but was overlooked for the World Cup and was not used against Australia in the Ashes series recently.
TKR captain Kieron Pollard is going back to the country where he started his CPL career as a captain. He feels no way about it: "This is the beauty of franchise cricket. You get a chance to play in different teams all around the region and you develop as a player. Yes, I first played here in the CPL but I am happy where I am now and looking forward to leading the team to victory against the Tridents.
"It is good to be back playing here, there is always a keen battle between these two franchises and we expect more the same when the teams square off."
After their narrow five-run loss to the Tallawahs, Tridents captain Jason Holder is not a happy man. "We didn't bat well. You want to show intent when you go out there with the bat but we couldn't do that. We need to look ourselves in the mirror at the moment because we need to turn things around and do it rapidly. TKR is a tough unit, it won't be easy but we have had some good results against them here in the past."
The track at Kensington is expected to be on the slow side and batting would not be easy after the hardness of the ball goes away. The Tridents have been boosted by the inclusion of Bangladeshi Shakib Al Hasan, who had a brilliant ICC World Cup in England recently.
In head to head clashes, the TKR which is the most successful team in the history of the CPL has won seven of the 11 encounters, with the Tridents winning four.