THE EDGE: The Edge previews Monday’s IPL clash between Royal Challengers Bengaluru v Sunrisers Hyderabad with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru v Sunrisers Hyderabad
MATCH OVERVIEW:
A new week begins at the IPL on Betdaq Betting Exchange as Royal Challengers Bengaluru host Sunrisers Hyderabad. One of the main talking points of this year’s IPL has been just how poor RCB have been; they went into a do-or-die game last week against Mumbai Indians and got absolutely hammered again. They batted reasonably well to score 196/8 but Mumbai absolutely tonked their bowlers around the park to chase it down in just 15.3 overs. Bowling has been a major issue for RCB all season, and this is possibly the season where the franchise owners have to start asking questions.
RCB have always been batting focused. They have always been top heavy too; they’ve always spent a lot of money on star batters, had lower quality middle order local players and big holes in their bowling line-up. Some years they splashed the cash on bowlers like Mitchell Starc, but they’ve always focused on star batters. That approach is not working. In franchise cricket, bowling usually wins the day – let’s not forget that RCB play their home games at the highest scoring IPL venue too. Obviously scores have got higher and higher in recent years at every venue, that’s just the way cricket is going, but Bengaluru has always been an incredible high scoring venue.
Sunrisers Hyderabad have the batting to blow RCB away here too. They have already scored 277/3 against the Mumbai Indians earlier in the tournament. Their lowest score this season has been 162/8, you couldn’t say that their batting is letting them down. They are similar to RCB in the sense that their bowlers have let them down at times, but overall their bowling has been much stronger than RCB. It’s interesting times for RCB; they desperately need a win soon. They might be struggling, but they are still box office.
WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:
This is the fourth game at the Chinnaswamy, and so far scoring actually hasn’t been that high this season. We haven’t saw a score over 200 which is very unusual at this ground. Prior to this season, the average score per over here was 9.4. The first inning scores here have been; 176/6 (chased), 182/6 (chased) and 181/5 (won). It’s worth noting that RCB have been poor this season and confidence must be low, so that will bring down the standard. Lucknow defended well and they are having a good tournament. KKR chased down the 182/6 in just 16.5 overs. You always have to expect runs here, but I would have a more open mind based on what we’ve watched this season.
RECOMMENDED BET:
RCB, despite not winning the IPL, are one of the most popular franchises in India. Of course, Indian’s love runs and sixes – the RCB home ground always brought that and then they always brought in batting stars too; that’s not even mentioning the impact of Virat Kohli. They are clearly struggling this season though, and they come into this game as the outsiders. Sunrisers Hyderabad are 1.84 and that looks good value to me – they have been much better this season. They can go toe-to-toe batting wise but there’s a gulf in class between the bowling line-ups and that is what is going to win the game.
The Edge Says:
Three points win Sunrisers Hyderabad to beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru at 1.84 with Betdaq Exchange
View the market here -> https://betdaq.biz/RcbHyd
IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:
Usually at the Chinnaswamy you want to support both batting sides – you generally don’t want to be on the bowlers for long here because a six or two is never far away. Obviously this year hasn’t been as high scoring as past year’s so I wouldn’t go into this game with a “just back the batters” mindset. I feel the best edge here however will be to take on the RCB bowling when the time comes in either innings. They have been very poor this season and they have seemingly no way of stopping runs flowing – that’s why they sit bottom of the table.
