St Lucia vs Barbados Prediction

Kyle Hope and Ahmed Shehzad will be opening the innings with the latter to have more expectations pinned on him. Malik, Pooran and captain Pollard have all been among the runs and their roles are going to be important. Of the three, Pooran has shown more consistency and has back-to-back fifties. He belted 81 off 39 balls against the Zouks in the reverse fixture and is likely to top-score again. So middle-order batting is going to be the key for the Tridents.
The visitors will be backing their best bowler Ravi Rampaul to pick up early wickets on Saturday. The pacer has taken two wickets in each of his last two matches and has notched up 11 so far in the tournament. David Wiese also took two scalps in the last match and he could be sharing the new ball with Rampaul. With Parnell no longer available, it will be up to Raymon Reifer to hold the fort for the Tridents. Rampaul, Wiese and Reifer will have to bowl well against a powerful batting lineup of the Zouks.

Our Prediction

Looking back at the past head-to-head records, Barbados Tridents seem to have a clear edge as they have six wins in a total of seven games. They won the first five face-offs before being beaten last year for the first time in the tournament. They have won the first round this year as well and it will be hard work for St Lucia Zouks to stop them at Gros Islet where they had to taste defeats against them back in 2013 and 2014. The momentum, however, is going to be with the Zouks as they will be going into this match with a win in their last match on this very ground as opposed to the Tridents who lost their previous fixture.

St Lucia Zouks have a power-packed batting lineup and have plenty of spark in their bowling as well. But due to their excellent record over the Zouks, we feel confident enough to back Barbados Tridents here to win this contest.