By Akeem Greene
The Caribbean Premier League has returned to Guyana and the home franchise, Guyana Amazon Warriors, is under pressure to make the playoffs.
However, if the Amazon Warriors win all four of their home matches, they would finish in second place, but present form suggests that would be an uphill task.
They will meet Jamaica Tallawahs on Wednesday from 19:00h.
How can they qualify?
- Win all four matches
Each of the other teams has only two matches remaining – only Barbados Royals on 14 points have secured a playoff spot and they can afford to lose to the Warriors and St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots, and still remain in the top spot.
St. Lucia Kings (eight points) and Jamaica Tallawahs (eight points) will finish with a maximum of 10 points if they lose to the Warriors and win their other preliminary match.
Patriots, whom the Warriors will not play in Guyana, can also reach 10 points, but they need to beat Royals and Trinbago Knight Riders.
Knight Riders can reach 11 points, providing they defeat Warriors and Patriots as they have seven points from eight matches.
Though the Warriors only have three points from six matches, a clean sweep at home will give them 11 points, and also two cracks at the final, as they will finish in second place to face the Royals in playoff one.
- Win three matches
If the Warriors win three of the four matches, they can still qualify, but qualification will not be totally in their hands as three wins mean six points and they move to nine points.
Ideally, if they lose to Royals, and beat the other teams, who also win one of their matches, it will come down to the net run rate between them and TKR as Kings and Tallawahs will move to 10 points and the Warriors and TKR will finish on nine points.
At present, the Warriors’ -0.540 net run rate is better than TKR’s -0.823, and should TKR beat the Patriots, the TKR v Warriors clash on Saturday would be a virtual knockout.
However, say the Warriors lose one of their matches to either Tallawahs, Kings, or TKR, they would have to hope TKR also lose to the Patriots, and it will come down to the net run rate between them and TKR.
- Patriots win both of their matches
Patriots face Royals (September 21) and TKR (September 22) and if they win both, they will move to second position.
It also means that if even Warriors beat TKR and win three out of four, they can qualify in third on nine points, depending on the result between Tallawahs and Kings, as either of the two would move to 10 points and one remain on eight.
However, if Tallawahs and Kings lose to Amazon Warriors and their clash against each other is rained out, they will each finish on nine points and their superior net run rate at this point could likely keep them ahead of the Warriors in a three-way split on nine points.
