CPL 2020 – St Kitts and Nevis Patriots vs Guyana Amazon Warriors Game Plan: Struggling openers and Penetrative spinners

The CPL 2020 has sparked some interesting T20 match-ups. Here, we look at the key game plans and tactical thinkings that could play a role in the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots vs Guyana Amazon Warriors game in CPL 2020.

CPL 2020 St Kitts and Nevis Patriots vs Guyana Amazon Warriors Game Plan 1

Guyana batsmen and their struggles against spin

Guyana came into the tournament with high expectations from their batsmen. Brandon King, Chandrapaul Hemraj, Shimron Hetmyer, Ross Taylor, Nicholas Pooran and Sherfane Rutherford – this line-up is easily one of the best in the competition on paper. However, they have struggled this season and more so against spin than pace.

Their average opening partnership this season has been just 13, the only team with a lower average opening partnership is the Jamaica Tallawahs. Collectively, their batsmen average just 14.3 against spin, once again the joint-lowest this tournament.

SKNP don’t have the best spinners in the tournament. They dropped their premier wrist-spinner Ish Sodhi to play Imran Khan – the local talent. They brought Jon-Russ Jaggesar into the eleven after their pace attack wasn’t suited to the slow wickets in Trinidad. In the game against SLZ, Ben Dunk ended up bowling ahead of Alzarri Joseph because, once again, the pitch deemed it so. And in the last game, they played all their spinners on a turning track and still ended up being out-bowled.

Jon-Russ Jaggesar, who has bowled 11 of his 20 overs in the Powerplay this season should be the major threat for Guyana later today. Even though he hasn’t taken a wicket in the Powerplay this season, the Guyana line-up has been susceptible against off-spin in the Powerplay with each of King and Hetmyer being dismissed twice against the bowling type as well as Taylor and Hemraj falling once.

Imran Khan will also be a threat to the GAW line-up. In the powerplay, he has bowled 4 overs and taken 3 wickets, and has been very frugal as well, giving just 3.5 runs per over in the powerplay. Considering the Guyana batsmen strike at just 79 against right-arm leg-spin this season, how they fare against the off-spin of Jaggesar and the wrist-spin of Imran Khan will be a very crucial match-up.

CPL 2020 St Kitts and Nevis Patriots vs Guyana Amazon Warriors Game Plan 2

Lynn and Lewis and the away-turning ball

Chris Lynn and Evin Lewis opened the batting for St Kitts and Nevis in their first five matches, before a groin injury forced Lewis to bat down the order in the last match. If fit, Evin Lewis will return as opener for today’s clash, but there have been questions about Lynn’s place in the eleven. He has struggled against spin this season, being dismissed twice by off-break scoring 9 runs and twice by leg-break without even scoring yet. Also noteworthy is the fact that he hasn’t managed to survive past the fifth over this season in any of the matches.

Lewis as well has struggled against the ball turning away from him, with off-spin bowling accounting for his wicket 3 times for an aggregate of just 12 runs. Lewis (4) and Lynn (4.5) both are in the bottom-five in the list of averages versus off-break this season. Guyana have bowled spin in 26 of their 35 powerplay overs and if the trend continues, we could see SKNP lose their openers quickly.

If Lewis manages to see off Chris Green, he could look to target Imran Tahir. Lewis has scored the most runs against leg-spin this season and has the second-best strike rate against the bowling type as well, only behind Kieron Pollard. Lewis has also hit the most sixes against leg-spin and with Tahir naturally turning the ball into the southpaw, we could see some fireworks.

CPL 2020 St Kitts and Nevis Patriots vs Guyana Amazon Warriors Game Plan 3

Shimron Hetmyer’s up-and-down season

Hetmyer started off the season with two sumptuous fifties on pitches that were not the easiest to bat on. But since the shift to the Queen’s Park Oval, his scores have been 5(7) and 26(30). He would want to follow the template set by a few other batsmen at the venue: stay watchful and rotate strike against spin while cashing in on the pacers in the death overs. Other batsmen like Evin Lewis, Kyle Mayers and Glenn Phillips have found success following this template at this ground.

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In their last fixture against TKR, he negotiated the spinners well but fell to the first ball of pace in the death overs, slicing a wide yorker straight to cover.