IPL: Our cricket tipster The Edge previews Friday’s IPL game between Punjab Kings v Gujarat Titans with a recommended BETDAQ bet.

MATCH OVERVIEW:

The Indian Premier League is back at the Brabourne Stadium on Friday for another excellent afternoon of action on BETDAQ Betting Exchange ! Punjab Kings face off with Gujarat Titans in an important game for both sides. With the very poor starts this season for Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings, you have to feel the door is open for some new faces in the Playoffs this season. I know Mumbai and CSK can come roaring back, but to lose their opening three games is surprising and their squads don’t look as strong this season either.

IPL new boys Gujarat have started the tournament with a bang with two wins from two games. They did well to win their opening game but they impressed me more when beating Delhi Capitals in their second game. The Gujarat middle order is solid and also explosive with Pandya and Miller there but their bowling looks rock solid too. Obviously any side with Rashid Khan is going to do well and they have plenty of seam options too. As I have seen with KKR this season, it’s always a huge positive to have a strong bowling line-up in these T20 leagues – it wins you a lot of games. Despite being new, I can see Gujarat having a very good season.

This will be a good test for them however, as the Punjab batting has put up two excellent displays from their opening three games. They collapsed in their other game however, and with Punjab they always seem to be hit-or-miss regardless of who’s in their starting XI! It would have been fantastic for Liam Livingstone to hit 60 off 32 balls in their last game – he’s done it in England but this is the biggest stage in cricket. An interesting game awaits.

WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:

Punjab will be glad to be back at the Brabourne after a very good display here. We’ve had three games here so far and they have all been pretty high scoring. We saw first inning scores of 177/5, 210/7 and 180/8. Only CSK failed to chase down the 180/8 from Punjab, but it’s worth pointing out that there has been a big issue with dew here for the sides trying to defend. Bowling is always incredibly tough with dew, so that’s going to have the biggest impact on this game. I would expect another reasonably high scoring game, and it just depends on whether or not we get dew as to how easy it will be for the chasing side. It was a very heavy dew when CSK played Lucknow here, and Lucknow were able to chase down the 210 with balls to spare!

RECOMMENDED BET:

Interesting market here, and I disagree with the odds. It was great to land a max bet on Wednesday with KKR against Mumbai, and while I don’t recommend a max bet here – I do like Gujarat at odds against. I do have a lot of respect for Punjab Kings, but for me the Gujarat side looks to have a superb balance. Their batting and bowling has a very solid look to it, but I actually feel their bowling will win the day here. If we get a heavy dew, it all becomes about trying to stop the flow of runs – step forward Rashid Khan! Punjab might match Gujarat (or be marginally better) with the bat, but on good batting conditions it will be the bowling that decided this game.

The Edge Says:
Two points win Gujarat Titans to beat Punjab Kings at 2.1 with BETDAQ BETTING EXCHANGE.

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

IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:

There’s only one thing to focus on here in my opinion and that’s whether or not we get heavy dew. If the heavy dew lands then expecting some very high scoring and the chasing side to have a big advantage. If we get no dew, then I see the game going a lot like Punjab’s last game here – the side batting first might be able to put up a decent score and defend it. Really and truly, a lot hangs on whether we get dew here and you should revolve your in-play trading around this. In a normal game with no dew, focus on looking for your usual trades. If we have heavy dew, focus on looking for trades on the batting side and always edge your trading towards the chasing side the later we get into the game.