IPL: Our cricket tipster The Edge previews Monday’s IPL game between Punjab Kings v Delhi Capitals with a recommended BETDAQ bet.

Punjab Kings v Delhi Capitals

MATCH OVERVIEW:

We begin the final week of the Indian Premier League group stage on Monday and we should have another exciting week of action on BETDAQ Betting Exchange! We’ve already had all our games at Pune for this season, so we finish the group stages at the three grounds in Mumbai. Punjab Kings take on Delhi Capitals to start the weekend at the DY Patil Stadium, and we should have a good game for trading here. Both sides have been a little unreliable this season, but they are still in the mix for the Playoffs. They both sit on 12 points having played 12 games, and they will be targeting that fourth spot and the final Playoff place. Apart from the bottom three, the race for that fourth spot is wide open to be honest. RCB and KKR have played one game more than these two sides too.

I think the fairest way to describe these sides is “up-and-down” in form. It’s no surprise that they have won six and lost six! Even looking at their recent form, they keep going win/loss/win/loss! That was a crunch game for Punjab Kings last Friday against RCB and they were very impressive winning by 54 runs. Jonny Bairstow scoring 66 off 29 balls is always going to put you in a great position at the top of the order, and Liam Livingstone was superb in the middle order too. Whatever chance Punjab have of getting that last Playoff place, they absolutely need the two English players to fire and score like they did on Friday.

While Punjab have two very important English men, Delhi Capitals have two very important Australian’s. David Warner and Mitchell Marsh led an easy win against Rajasthan Royals last week, and that opened the door for a chance to finish fourth. I can’t stress enough how important this fixture is for both sides – it really is do-or-die! The question is, who would you rather be on? Punjab Kings England stars or Delhi Capitals Australian stars?

WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:

Of all four grounds we’ve had during the group stages, I feel this ground has been the trickiest to trade. There doesn’t seem to be a clear and obvious bias when you look at the overall picture. That is a good thing in cricketing terms because the side who plays the best cricket will win, but from a trading point of view it’s nice to have a little edge for the bowling or batting side to trade. We’ve saw a range of scores here in the last four games, 208/6 to 143/8 while in the last two games 160/6 was chased down and 165/9 was defended. I would keep a very open mind on what a par score here is, and I would just trade conditions when you see them rather than going into the game with a set opinion on what the side batting first will do. It’s a tricky decision for the captain who wins the toss too – bat or bowl?

RECOMMENDED BET:

No surprise we have a very even market. Like I said above, there’s no obvious bias here so conditions won’t favour either side. When you look at the sides last games too, their stars really fired. I like on balance however, Delhi Capitals are that little bit more consistent for me. I will be keeping my stakes very low here, and perhaps the best play will be to not back Delhi until Jonny Bairstow is out because he looked in superb form the other day and he tends to go on these hot streaks and can’t be stopped. Warner has been in superb form though at the top of the order, and it would be a brilliant story to see him in the Playoffs after what happened at Hyderabad last season. This is definitely a game for small stakes, but Delhi edge it for me. Their bowling is just that bit better – although it hasn’t been as good as it was over the last two seasons.

The Edge Says:
One point win Delhi Capitals to beat Punjab Kings at 1.97 with BETDAQ Exchange.

View the market here -> https://betdaq.biz/PunDel

IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:

There’s a couple of things to highlight again here which I touched on above. The first is there is no obvious bias to batting or bowling first here, so I don’t see any edge there – in situations like that it’s best to just do nothing. Sometimes the right trade is no trade. Scoring wise, I would put a lot of effort into seeing in there a heavy dew because that will make conditions very tricky for the bowlers. As I mentioned above, I’m happy to take on the Punjab top-to-mid order between Bairstow and Livingstone but I wouldn’t open the trade until Bairstow is gone – he looked in great form the last day. I don’t mind supporting the Delhi bowling here too, but again as I said above they haven’t been as good as they were so keep stakes low. We should have an interesting game ahead, and another cracking week.