THURSDAY IPL: Our cricket tipster The Edge previews Thursday’s IPL Game 34 between Mumbai Indians v Kolkata Knight Riders with a recommended BETDAQ bet.

MATCH OVERVIEW:

After a couple of days in Dubai, the Indian Premier League returns to Abu Dhabi on Thursday as Mumbai Indians take on the Kolkata Knight Riders. If you remember last season, both sides played a lot of cricket at this ground and had success. Mumbai Indians nearly made it a second home and their side is very suited to the conditions. They will be hoping to improve from their first game against CSK, while KKR will be hoping that they can repeat the same bowling performance that saw them bowl RCB out for just 92!

For Kolkata Knight Riders, they will still be trying to turn their fortunes around after a bad start to the tournament in India. We saw some tricky batting conditions in India, and they just don’t suit the likes of Andre Russell who like to come in and hit the ball from the go. He should fare much better in the UAE, but it’s also worth remembering that this ground had the lowest average score batting first last season, so it’s not going to be straightforward to smash sixes the minute you come out to the wicket.

The two sides already met each other in India, Mumbai Indians were all out for 152 but Kolkata Knight Riders couldn’t chase it down in the difficult batting conditions in Chennai. In my opinion batting first gives a slight edge here; so we will see a repeat?

WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:

This is the second game here, and we saw Kolkata Knight Riders play Royal Challengers Bangalore here at the start of the week. Batting first, RCB were bowled out for 92 so I’m not sure what we can learn from that. KKR chased it down in 10 overs only losing one wicket.

As I said above, this was the lowest scoring ground from the IPL last year and I would expect that to be the case again. However, that’s not to say the wicket was tricky. We saw a few scores in the 190’s here last season, but never over 200. Some of the big scores came from Mumbai Indians who were really suited to playing here. The average score batting first was 163.

RECOMMENDED BET:

I’m not a huge fan of KKR, but I’m happy to have a small bet on them here. Mumbai Indians are definitely under-performing so far this IPL. They have an immense playing XI, but they just haven’t clicked. They are slow starters, so perhaps they can be forgiven the CSK loss but KKR will come into this game full of confidence after hammering the RCB. They got to see how conditions are here too and that could give them a slight edge. I just expect a closer game than the odds reflect and KKR look good value at 2.16 or bigger.

The Edge Says:
One point win Kolkata Knight Riders to beat Mumbai Indians at 2.16 with BETDAQ Betting Exchange

View the market here -> https://bit.ly/BDQMunKkr

IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:

It’s still early days in the tournament, but we are getting a better idea of what to expect. I think it’s easier to form an in-running strategy in Dubai now because we’ve seen a few games, while this is just the second game here. Judging from last season and I would take a lot of guidance from those stats – there was a slight edge batting first here, definitely at the start of the tournament. But then RCB didn’t do very well on Monday! We can get a heavy dew here too, so watch out for that – if the dew lands you want to look for trades on the batting side, back the side batting first and switch at half-time to the chasing side. It’s incredibly difficult to bowl with a wet ball from dew, and there’s always an edge for the chasing side. It’s likely you’ll see a lot of players with towels if there’s dew trying to dry the ball, so if the commentators don’t mention it watch out for that. Mumbai have a very impressive XI, and I’m keen to avoid getting against them on BETDAQ Betting Exchange unless there is a lot of value on offer – I feel the best trade in-running here might be to take on the KKR top order (if there isn’t dew) and then trade out as their middle order comes in who should perform well.