THE EDGE: The Edge previews the IPL Final between Royal Challengers Bengaluru v Punjab Kings with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
Final: Royal Challengers Bengaluru v Punjab Kings
MATCH OVERVIEW:
It’s IPL Final time on BETDAQ Betting Exchange! Two months of fantastic entertainment with plenty of ups and downs reaches the end on Tuesday as Royal Challengers Bengaluru face Punjab Kings for a chance to go into the history books. It’s a case of déjà vu here given we saw this fixture a few days ago, but the two sides did finish first and second in the group stage so it’s a fitting final. Obviously there’s going to be a huge buzz around the fact that RCB and Virat Kohli have never won the IPL, and now they face a side that they just hammered last week. All the pressure is going to be on RCB in that sense, even allowing for the fact that Punjab Kings have never won the IPL either.
Someone’s 0 is going to go as they say! For Punjab Kings, they aren’t by any means the biggest franchise in the IPL. A tournament win would be massive for them – RCB might not have a tournament win either, but their fanbase is massive compared to Punjab. Both sides have played excellent cricket this season; they deserve their place here. We should have a high quality game in that sense, however you could have easily said the same thing heading into Qualifier 1 last week only for one of the most uncompetitive games of the tournament to unfold. RCB bowled Punjab out for just 101 and chased it down in ten overs. Punjab just completed flopped with the bat, and perhaps after they chased down 203/6 against Mumbai in Qualifier 2 we should just put that down to an off day.
RCB’s batting has been in superb form lately. They chased down 227/3 from Lucknow in their final group game quite easily. A magical innings from Jitesh Sharma; Liam Livingstone being the only low light out for a golden duck. Kohli looked in good form with the bat too; obviously the narrative will be built around him and RCB with the IPL title on the line. It should be a fascinating game.
WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:
There’s no better place for an IPL Final than the world’s largest cricket stadium in Ahmedabad. We should get ready for some big scores too, as this has been an exceptionally good venue for the batters this season. Of course with all the pressure of a Final, we could see a collapse but batting conditions here have been perfect. The first inning scores have been; 243/5 (won), 196/8 (won), 217/6 (won), 203/8 (chased), 224/6 (won), 235/2 (won), 230/5 (won) and 203/6 (chased). The lowest score was 196, so you’ll need to go big if you bat first here! The ease at which Punjab chased the 203 from Mumbai on Sunday would suggest you’d have to be looking at 220+ batting first. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a score of around 200 chased down.
RECOMMENDED BET:
I backed RCB in Qualifier 1 because I was surprised to see them trading at 2.0 when I thought they would be the favourites. The market has adjusted slightly after seeing the sides play last week, and now RCB come into the game trading as the 1.93 favourites. Obviously we should have a more competitive game than we had last week, but I still feel that the 1.93 on RCB is good value here. The Punjab bowling is a major worry for me – their batters got them out of trouble against Mumbai but once again they conceded 200+. We should see a very high scoring game here, and the in-form RCB batting can take advantage of the Punjab weakness again.
The Edge Says:
Two points win Royal Challengers Bengaluru to beat Punjab Kings at 1.93 with BETDAQ Betting Exchange
View the market here -> https://betdaq.biz/RcbPnb
IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:
You’d have to go into this game expecting a very high scoring affair – absolutely everything points to it here. As I said above, the only danger of seeing a low scoring game is a batting collapse just under the immense pressure of an IPL Final. Once again at this ground, you definitely have to focus on looking for trades on either batting side here rather than supporting a bowling side. I really don’t rate the Punjab bowling, so I’m very happy to support the RCB batting in either innings – that’s where I see most market movement. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a score of around 200 chased here either.
