IPL GAME 22: Our cricket tipster The Edge previews Tuesday’s game between Delhi Capitals v Royal Challengers Bangalore with a recommended BETDAQ bet.

MATCH OVERVIEW:

We have a fascinating match in the Indian Premier League on Tuesday as Delhi Capitals take on the Royal Challengers Bangalore. It comes as an increasing number of International players pull out of the tournament with the troubling Covid19 situation in India. I’m sure it’s a very difficult time for some players and their families – my own opinion on the situation is the players who have left weren’t getting a game and it was possibly an easy choice for them, and we shouldn’t see many of the big stars leaving.

It does pose an interesting question though in the sense that what happens if the likes of Australia close their borders to India – what would the Australian players do? I’m sure there can be ways around that, and then you have the money issues too – for example the New Zealand players will be keen to stay given the IPL makes up a large part of their income. Ashwin is the highest profile withdrawal so far, but we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

RCB lost their unbeaten record at the weekend to CSK. While they lost by 69 runs, they weren’t actually playing that badly until the 20th over. Jadeja hit 37 runs off the final over and you could see that RCB were shell-shocked and batted exactly like that. It was quite a dramatic double header on Sunday as Delhi Capitals tied with Sunrisers Hyderabad – they won the Super Over though and that was a nice boost, especially after beating Mumbai Indians too. I find this game fascinating with so many talking points, and it will be interesting to see what happens and who comes out on top.

WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:

This will be the second game in Ahmedabad and while I noted the India v England T20 series yesterday, I feel all that has gone out the window with Punjab Kings only scoring 123/9 in their first innings yesterday. They even hit a few sixes at the end, and the KKR bowling hasn’t been scary in the tournament to date. The pitch didn’t look easy to bat and you would assume those conditions will continue, at least today anyway. The pitch looked a little like Chennai, but if you got in there were runs there. As always, be wary of dew as that can make batting a lot easier.

RECOMMENDED BET:

I’m not surprised at all to see a very even market on BETDAQ Betting Exchange as you would assume this will be a very close game. I feel this game will be decided by the toss, with the bowling side having a big advantage in the first innings. I would expect dew in the second innings, and with both sides trading around 2.0 I feel the best advice here is to back the team who bowls first at 1.8+ or bigger. That allows for 20 ticks of movement on the toss news, but I still feel it offers good value given the conditions.

The Edge Says:
Three points win The Team Who Bowls First at 1.8+ on BETDAQ Betting Exchange

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

IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:

In my recommended bet I decided to go with backing the team who bowls first and while that is slightly an in-running strategy, I feel it offers such a big edge I still had to recommend it as a bet. The only reasons the stakes are middle of the road on the 1 to 5 scale is I don’t exactly know which team will bowl first so it could hardly be a max bet. The pitch looked very tricky to bat on yesterday, but the bowlers said the dew came in with five overs to go and it made the ball difficult to grip. This would make sense too, because a few sixes came in the final overs – other than that the score would have been much lower.

Although I feel bowling first will offer a huge advantage, there is a danger that RCB could get someone like de Villiers or Maxwell to the final five overs and they could go mental with the dew. That being said, surely the team chasing are going to have a big advantage with dew for their whole innings and I feel the in-running strategy should focus around that rather than any plans for players.