INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE: Our cricket tipster The Edge previews Royal Challengers Bangalore v Kolkata Knight Riders on Monday with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
The Edge has been a professional cricket trader for over 12 years, and we are delighted to have his columns on BETDAQ Tips. He provides his best bets on a points scale between 1 and 5, with 5 being a rare max bet.
Because we see so much action in-running on cricket, he will also provide some in-running strategies that could develop in-play and lead to some excellent value bets. The Edge covers all forms of cricket: Test Matches, ODI’s and T20’s but his favourite competition is the Indian Premier League each season.
MATCH OVERVIEW:
We kick off another week of Indian Premier League action with Royal Challengers Bangalore taking on Kolkata Knight Riders! After a busy double header weekend in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, we move back to Sharjah. We saw the first signs of the Sharjah wicket slowing down on Friday between Delhi Capitals and Rajasthan Royals, however Delhi still came reasonably close to scoring 200+ if a few things went their way. I would be a bit wary of expecting big runs, until we see what happens in this game (with an eye on the future!)
Both sides won their games on Saturday, with RCB comfortably beating CSK and KKR winning on the last ball against Kings XI Punjab. KKR might not be the most talented side, but so far they have shown that they are the best team for grinding! They have won a lot of games that they “should have” lost, or at least looked like they had lost! They never give up though to their credit, and in fairness when you don’t have the most talented squad that makes the difference between reaching the playoffs and not.
For RCB, much of the same opinion applies really. Finch and de Villiers failed at the weekend, however Kohli carried the team with 90 off 52 balls. RCB need their stars to fire, and as long as that keeps happening then they will keep winning. Can KKR grind them down though? We’ll find out today!
WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:
Much was made about the average first innings score being 219 ahead of the game here on Friday, but the pitch played very differently. It wasn’t as good for batting – don’t get me wrong – it’s still good for batting, just that the bowlers now have a little bit more in their favour. We will still have a heavy dew though, and I would certainly assess conditions in the opening three overs. I would be very cagey in regards to expecting 200+ runs in the first innings after Friday, however if they move the wicket to a different track then we could easily see the same conditions that had an average score of 219! Thankfully the weather is set fair.
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KKR were pretty lucky to win against Kings XI Punjab at the weekend, but they grinded and I feel that can work against this RCB team. Really and truly, you just need to get Finch, Kohli and de Villiers early and the game is won against RCB. Isn’t that easier said than done though! Especially with batting conditions at Sharjah. The reality is batting conditions are so good here that the KKR batsmen can counter the RCB stars, with the lower order of RCB being a little average. I think RCB are too short here, and KKR are the value at 2.12. The KKR bowlers are definitely a higher quality than RCB and that can win the game.
The Edge Says:
One point win Kolkata Knight Riders to beat Royal Challengers Bangalore at 2.12 with BETDAQ Exchange.
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IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:
For the first few games, the in-play strategy was easy here – just back runs and the batting team! I really want to see how the pitch is behaving in the opening three overs here before getting married to an opinion on how the game will go. I think with a fresh wicket we will more than likely see 200+, but if we have the same wicket then I would expect to see a score of around 185 again. That being said, Delhi lost early wickets and that’s not what you want here.
The ideal play would be to see the team batting first keep wickets in hand for the opening ten overs, while still going at a decent rate of course, and then supporting them as they launch in the final ten to five overs. That’s where we’ve had massive runs to date here. In the second innings, it’s all about picking your spots as to when you get involved on the batting team – but most of the action occurs in the first innings here and I’d want to target that final ten overs on the batting team, if they were well set.
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