THE resurgent Jamaica Tallawahs, playing in front of their home fans for the first time this season, will look to exact revenge on the Guyana Amazon Warriors in today’s Limacol Caribbean Premier League (CPL) cricket match at Sabina Park in Kingston.

In the other CPL Twenty20 (T20) match today — a day/night encounter — Antigua Hawksbills entertain St Lucia Zouks at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound.

Since losing heavily to the Amazon Warriors in Guyana during the early stages of the regional franchise-based competition, the Christopher Gayle-captained Tallawahs have been stung into action.

They pulled off victories against the Hawksbills, Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel and the Zouks to close the gap on the pacesetters Barbados Tridents.

The Tridents head the standings with eight points from six matches, ahead of the Amazon Warriors with six from five outings and the Tallawahs — holding an inferior net run rate of 0.164 — also on six, but from only four games.

The Hawksbills lead the lower half of the table with four points from five matches. The Red Steel are also on four points from five matches, while the Zouks languish at the back of the pack on two from five outings.

The race for the semi-final spots is still wide open and Tallawahs’ allrounder David Bernard, though anxious to hit back at the Amazon Warriors in the 2:00 pm showpiece, is looking at the bigger picture.

“It’s an important game and they won the first leg, so obviously we are looking to get one up on them this time around. That aside, there is still the tournament that we have to put into perspective and we need to just keep winning to enhance our chances of reaching the semi-finals,” Bernard told the Jamaica Observer at a raindrenched Sabina Park on Tuesday.

The Tallawahs assistant coach Junior Bennett is predicting an exciting affair.

“The Guyana team is a quality team and they have some good players on the international scene. But we have been playing some good cricket and I think we’ll equip ourselves quite well. I think there will be good cricket from both teams,” said the long-time Jamaica senior team coach.

Gayle aside, the Tallawahs can call on Danza Hyatt, Andre Russell and out-of-favour regional wicketkeeper/ batsman Carlton Baugh for batting impetus.

The bowling is led by South African pacer Vernon Philander, retired Sri Lankan off-spinning legend Muttiah Muralitharan and left-arm finger spinner Nikita Miller.

The Amazon Warriors have outstanding spinner Sunil Narine, left-arm orthodox slow bowler Veerasammy Permaul, big-hitting opener Lendl Simmons, New Zealand batsman Martin Guptill, as well as middle-order batsmen Christopher Barnwell and Ramnaresh Sarwan.

The battle between both teams’ bowlers and their batsmen should be an intriguing one on a Sabina Park surface which offered abundant help to both pacers and spinners during the recent domestic regional tournament.

Despite the high-quality cast, the Tallawahs squad has not yet fired near to capacity. The 32-year-old Bernard hailed the Paul Nixoncoached Tallawahs for bouncing back from the early defeat, but conceded there is room for improvement.

“To win three in a row is a good effort… not just a good effort in winning, but the team is gelling nicely so far. We can still improve in all departments. We haven’t batted or bowled as well as we can so there are aspects we want to improve in,” he said.

The Amazon Warriors also have questions of inconsistency hanging above their heads.

Led by the former West Indies captain Sarwan, they won their opening two encounters, but slumped to a pair of defeats in their next three matches.

A positive result against the Tallawahs would firmly put the train back on track.