INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE: Our cricket tipster The Edge previews Sunday’s two matches in the IPL with Sunrisers Hyderabad v Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians v Kings XI Punjab, both 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.
Sunrisers Hyderabad v Kolkata Knight Riders
MATCH OVERVIEW:
It’s the second day of double header action this weekend and we have a cracker in the IPL today! Sunrisers Hyderabad take on Kolkata Knight Riders in a massive game for both sides. We’ll be two thirds into the tournament on Monday, and both these sides are pushing for the final Playoff spot. After all the teams had played eight games prior to yesterday, KKR were in fourth position and Sunrisers Hyderabad were right behind them in fifth. Of course, CSK will have something to say about these two battling for fourth too!
KKR have had a dramatic week. They’ve actually had two very poor performances too. They started the week with a loss by 82 runs against RCB, and then lost by eight wickets on Friday against Mumbai Indians. Their batting was poor twice, and their bowling leaked too many runs. Karthik has stepped down as Captain, and World Cup winning England captain Eoin Morgan has taken over.
The thing about the IPL is that games come so fast, it’s very difficult to make a lot of changes during the tournament. RCB found themselves on the backfoot early last year, and actually never got going – despite having a lot of talent. What Morgan can do in a short space of time remains to be seen, and he hasn’t got many bowling options. Pat Cummins is especially out of form.
WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:
It’s now obvious that the wickets are slowing down in the UAE and we should see a very different tournament from now on. We have bags of talent on show, so I wouldn’t expect the scores to go very low – but I don’t think we’ll see over 200 again unless a team bowls very poorly in a heavy dew. KKR only managed 148/5 here on Friday in a night game, but that appears as not enough. Batting should be a little tougher given it’s a day game without any dew, but I would suggest 165 is a nice target to aim for batting first. We have no worries with the weather.
RECOMMENDED BET:
These two teams have been the teams that have “grinded” results out rather than blown away teams. You’d have to expect a very close game, between two teams who aren’t scoring at a fast rate. You’d have to say that both teams are pretty much equal, although I think Hyderabad can come out on top here. KKR have struggled this week with their batting and their bowling has been poor too. Only for some very close wins, they could find themselves a long way off the Playoff places – they grinded to wins though so credit to them. I like a small investment on Hyderabad at 2.04 in what should be a very close game – however I’d have Hyderabad as favourites.
The Edge Says:
One point win Sunrisers Hyderabad to beat Kolkata Knight Riders at 2.04 with BETDAQ Betting Exchange.
View the market here -> http://bit.ly/BDQSunKkr
IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:
It’s fair to say that most Betting Exchange traders would look at this game as a good game to trade. We should see a lot of swings in-running between two evenly matched teams. Both teams have their weaknesses, with both lower orders struggling. On paper, the KKR lower order should be successful – but it just hasn’t worked out like that for them. Even when it did fire in their last game, a bad start left them too far behind. They need Russell to fire; he hasn’t lit up this IPL at all yet. Indeed, you would have made a lot of ticks in-running going against him.
I would be against the KKR openers again, and against Pat Cummins when bowling. He is having a very poor IPL. I would also be happy to be against the Hyderabad middle to low order too. With difficult batting conditions without dew, we could see a lot of wickets here. I wouldn’t be on the batting team for long.
Mumbai Indians v Kings XI Punjab
MATCH OVERVIEW:
The World Universe Boss Chris Gayle came back for Kings XI Punjab during the week and delivered a win against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Sharjah was always going to suit his power hitting with the small boundaries, but if he can repeat the feat against Mumbai in Dubai then maybe all hope is not lost for the Playoffs for Punjab! RCB didn’t set a good target on Thursday, and they were never under pressure in the chase. Mumbai have been excellent in this tournament, and this will be a true test.
Mumbai Indians started the double header weekend top of the table, after all teams played eight games and they’ll be looking to stay there. It’s been pretty obvious that Mumbai and Delhi have been the best two teams in the tournament to date, while Punjab have more or less always been bottom of the table. I get a sense with Punjab that they haven’t played bad cricket, however if their batting doesn’t fire their bowlers aren’t good enough to win games on their own. If they are going to beat a side like Mumbai – they’ll need everyone in peak form.
WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:
We had a day game here on Saturday, but conditions would have been a little different so I wouldn’t read too much into that game. Delhi successfully defended 161/7 here on Wednesday, but I must stress that Rajasthan haven’t impressed me with the bat and it wasn’t a surprise to see them come up short. I would suggest the team batting first should be looking for 170, with anything over that being a very good score. Punjab have batted well here, but they have also bowled poorly! Once again we’re set fair with the weather.
RECOMMENDED BET:
We landed our bet on Punjab against RCB on Thursday, but I don’t want to back them to follow that up. Mumbai are a completely different side to RCB, and their strength in depth is very impressive. They haven’t put a foot wrong since the first game, even when they lost the Super Over to RCB, they chased 201 to tie. Clearly Chris Gayle helps Punjab, but he won’t help their bowling and that’s where Mumbai will win the game.
The Edge Says:
One point win Mumbai Indians to beat Kings XI Punjab at 1.65 with BETDAQ Betting Exchange.
View the market here -> http://bit.ly/BDQMumKin
IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:
It’s definitely been an advantage to bat first at Dubai, so I would be very keen to look for trades on the team batting first. It would be ideal if that was Mumbai because the Punjab bowling is weaker than Mumbai; so I would expect a bigger score and thus a bigger move on Mumbai.
There isn’t much I’d want to be against with Mumbai; although they haven’t got off to the best of starts in their innings. Their success has been driven by their lower and middle order. If there was a time to be against Mumbai, it would be the openers, however if Rohit Sharma gets going then he will go big – even with the big boundaries here. The Punjab lower order hasn’t impressed this season, and I would be happy to be against them today. Their top three have to go big.
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