CPL2021 Finals Day Preview

The Armada started the tournament with the most purchases from the draft, and their route to Finals Day started promisingly in the blisteringly hot opening round with an epic win over the Bourne Stars, dangerman David Sloan earning his fee and providing the biggest score of the competition with 118, and going on to (currently) top the MVP table with 174 runs. Rounds Two and Three hurt them coming up against the Knights and Enforcers but they are battlers, dogged hard work meant go them to the semi-final.

Reigning champions Meads had a star turn the first round - ex-England star Monty Panesar, but unfortunately he wasn't on the winning side, the Knights coming off better in the duel. The next two rounds saw wins against the bottom-placed Stars and Armada which nudged them into second place in the table. The Enforcers bat deep, and have gone on to flood the batting MVP table with names, along with three out of four places in the bowling table, showing Panesar isn't the only star player in their squad. Can they hold onto their bragging rights?

The Knights have had a perfect tournament, with only the rain standing in their way in Round Three. They got there on organic wins alone, and it was all down to a magical partnership - Karthik Menon and Zeeshan Mehtab, Zeeshan was only thwarted in the first round by retiring hurt. We didn't think anyone could top the Armada's score in the first round, but their partnership against the Armada in Round Two was impenetrable, with 271 runs between them in the tournament. They earned a free pass straight to the Final, but may be without key players, will that hurt their chances?

Round One

CPL - Grove Armada 209-8 v Bourne Stars 139-7

Grove Armada: David Sloan 118, Josh Jackman 2-10, Jacob Loveridge 2-16, Mark Nuti 2-29

Bourne Stars: Tom Bolger & John Bailey 22, Phil Boast 2-13, John Bailey 2-11

CPL - Meads Enforcers 148-7  v Gogmore Knights 186-7

Meads Enforcers: Luke Westcott 45*, Monty Panesar 2-16, Hugh Aish-Lyons 2-16

Gogmore Knights: Zeeshan Mehtab 111 (ret), Will Cooper 2-26

Round Two

CPL - Gogmore Knights 211-2 v Grove Armada 191-7

Gogmore Knights - Karthik Menon 111*, Liam Fisher 2-18, Jamie Anthony 2-21

Grove Armada - David Sloan 56, Cameron Wakefield 1-23, Rahane Nafaz 1-40

CPL - Meads Enforcers 179-5 v Bourne Stars 132 a/o

Meads Enforcers - Allan Inwood 37, Will Morris 2-12, Josh Fyfe 2-23, Hugh Aish-Lyons 2-26, Joe Clarke 2-28

Bourne Stars - Elliott Bloomfield 23, Dylan Pandya 2-28

Round Three

CPL - Grove Armada 149-7 Meads Enforcers 166-8

Grove Armada: Jacob Loveridge 35 & 2-26, David Sloan 2-15, Josh Jackman 2-23

Meads Enforcers: James Tindall 53, Joe Clarke 4-21

CPL - Gogmore Knights v Bourne Stars  - Abandoned

The batting and bowling MVP tables make for interesting reading going into Finals Day, with potentially eight bowlers in the running for the orange cap. Joe Clarke currently sits top of the table with 6 wickets, but there are three players hot on his heels - Josh Jackman (GA), and Hugh Aish-Lyons and Josh Fyfe (both ME) with four wickets.

Batting-wise we have four players in contention, David Sloan currently tops with 206, but with two potential opportunities to bump that total up Zeeshan Mehtab and Karthik Menon will be looking to go big in the Final. Or can Jacob Loveridge improve on his steady rate to outfox them all? Check out the standings here.