The Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel and the St Lucia Zouks have unfinished business that they will be looking to take care of today when they meet in the Hero Caribbean Premier League Twenty20 match at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain from 6 p.m.
When the two teams met in the second match of this year’s competition in St Lucia, the Zouks led by Andre Fletcher’s half-century, made 179 for six before rain ended the game early with the Red Steel on ten without loss early in their reply.
For the Red Steel, they will be hoping to build on their six-wicket win over the St Kitts-Nevis Patriots which coach Simon Helmot described as their most clinical performance so far this season.
It was only their second win out of five matches and despite their place at the bottom of the standings, Helmot said there is no reason for alarm.
“If you look at a couple of the other teams who are at the top of the table, they have played eight or nine games. You might think we are not doing well and we are far behind but we’re not. We’ve only had five games,” Helmot explained.
“We will play as best we can and we are looking forward to being successful in front of our twelfth man which is the Trini crowd. We have not fired on a couple of occasions but I think our last game was our most clinical effort. I think we played fearless cricket. We played positively and we won comfortably. We are looking forward to a similar batting effort against quite a strong attack,” the Red Steel coach added.
He is also wary of the Zouks who have Kevin Pietersen and Nathan McCullum plus former Red Steel players Shannon Gabriel, Ross Taylor, Fidel Edwards and Delorn Johnson in their ranks.
“They have Shannon and Fidel so they are obvious very strong from a pace point of view and with the inclusion of Nathan McCullum, they have a good balance in their team now so it’s going to be as tough as ever,” Helmot added.
Meanwhile, the Zouks are coming off a loss against the Patriots and are still trying to find their footing after losing skipper Darren Sammy due to injury.
They have slipped to fourth place with three wins out of eight matches and with just two matches left, they will have to win today to keep alive their chances of finishing in the top four.
Andre Fletcher, who is second behind Chris Gayle on the list of top run getters, said the Zouks will not be intimidated by the Red Steel.
“We don’t want to underestimate them. We have been playing good cricket but we lost our previous game so we just want to bounce back and play consistent cricket so hopefully we can restrict them to as low as possible and come out away with a win,” Fletcher told the media yesterday.
Assistant coach Ian Allen also noted that the loss of Sammy was a big blow.
“Sammy was a great loss for the team. He was one of our most dependable players and he brings a lot of energy on the field and his experience as well. It gives other players the opportunity to come in and establish themselves,” Allen added.