IPL GAME 12: Our cricket tipster The Edge previews Monday’s game 12 in the IPL between Chennai Super Kings v Rajasthan Royals with a recommended BETDAQ bet.


MATCH OVERVIEW:

We start another week of Indian Premier League action on Monday in Mumbai as the Chennai Super Kings take on the Rajasthan Royals. We have had a very eventful couple of days at Mumbai, we went from 221/6 in the first innings to 106/8 after changing to a different wicket and we saw some big movement off the pitch. One wonders what conditions we will get today, and everyone will have the fingers ready on BETDAQ Betting Exchange when they see the first few balls bowled.

Both sides enjoyed big wins here at the end of last week. That win in the final over for Rajasthan was massive as they were without Ben Stokes and although they will have to get used to life without Stokes after his injury, it was good to start on a winning note. While CSK blew Punjab Kings away, keeping them down to 106/8 and it’s fair to say CSK needed a performance like that after losing their first game so easily to Delhi and a poor IPL last season.

There are still a number of questions about CSK though – with their bowlers putting in such a good performance, I still have a lot of doubts about their batters and we still have the MS Dhoni question to answer. Will he be up to the task this season? We should have another excellent afternoon at the IPL!


WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:

The scoring really lowered in Mumbai towards the end of last weekend – highlighted by the fact CSK kept Punjab Kings down to 106/8. There’s been a huge amount of movement off the green surface in Mumbai, but watch out for a better pitch as we could easily go back to some very high scores if we change wicket on the square. I’m keeping an open mind on batting conditions going into every game at Mumbai because I don’t see how you could do anything different, however I would definitely bowl first. No matter what conditions are like I see bowling first as having more options to win the game. If the wicket has lots of movement you can keep them down to a low score, if it doesn’t then chasing isn’t that hard here and generally the chasing team has a good record – 57% in the last three IPL seasons.


RECOMMENDED BET:

We should have a very good game here. The market is pretty even, and that doesn’t surprise me. Indeed, I don’t see much value in the match odds market before the off. CSK are marginal favourites and while they bowled superbly here against Punjab Kings, for me the jury is still out on their batting. One of their batters impressed me here when handling conditions and that was Moeen Ali, so I’m going to recommend a small bet on him to be Top CSK Batsman. He’s English so he should handle the moving ball better than most, and if batting conditions are good he can smack a few sixes too.

The Edge Says:
One point win Moeen Ali Top CSK Batsmen at 5.5 with BETDAQ Betting Exchange

View the market here -> http://bit.ly/BDQCskRja


IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:

For me the in-running strategy has to centre around what type of batting conditions we get here, and you’re going to have to wait until you see the pitch. You can be prepared and have a plan for each outcome, if we see a really good pitch then it’s obvious you want to be looking for trades on the batting team. If when Punjab Kings scored over 220 here, they still only won by four runs so you would have had some nice trades on the chasing team even though they lost.

If we have a green wicket and there’s lots of movement, then it’s no brainer to get on the team bowling first. That has been a massive advantage here looking at the recent games, and although you still get some movement with the new ball in the second innings, it’s not as much as the first innings and by then the game is close to won, as we saw in CSK’s last fixture here.


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