IPL Betting Day Six

Deccan are looking seriously impressive (a phrase which works better if you imagine it in the voice of Michael Holding). Four bit hitters, two good opening bowlers and a decent spinner and some really sharp fielding. Sharma at extra cover and Gibbs at point form a virtually impenetrable screen. In my IPL pecking order, I’d have them up there with Mumbai, just ahead of Delhi and the steadily improving Chennai.

We’ve seen enough to Bangalore now to know that they won’t be winning the tournament. This was Pietersen’s most dominant performance as captain yet, but another big defeat won’t please him, Ray Jennings or the impatient Vijay Mallya. Having criticised Pietersen in the past, it’s only fair to give him some credit for the way he tried to lead the team today. Bangalore were really pumped up in the field, KP lead the clapping, cheering and cajoling.

Unfortunately no amount of chatter can make up for deficiencies in performance. There simply is not enough bite in the Bangalore attack. Steyn looks good, particularly at the end, but there is nothing else, even Kumble looked mortal today. And more failures for big signings Ryder and Uthappa put real pressure on the rest. If it wasn’t for Dravid, this would be a team in crisis. It remains to be seen whether Kallis can turn things around when he takes over in a week or so.

Tomorrow we have two games. First up, it’s Chennai against Delhi. Chennai are getting their gameplan together but still look a little leaden footed and need to work on rotating the strike. No batting problems for Delhi though their much-vaunted bowling looked weak against Punjab, Vettori aside. This should be a tight game. I’m leaning towards Chennai but can’t quite bring myself to trust them at Evens. A better bet is the Total Sixes market. Durban lends itself to six-hitting, perhaps it’s the extra bounce, but the ’14 and over’ option in Betfair’s total sixes market looks tempting.

Game two is Rajasthan taking on Kolkata. It is perhaps too early to write off a team as inventively lead and together as Rajasthan. But though they looked sharp in the field against Bangalore, their batting was inept. The likes of Asnodkar, Patel and Pathan are finding that wild slogging just doesn’t cut it on these wickets. Kolkata certainly have the class in their upper order, but as we saw against Deccan, if you get McCullum and Gayle early, there isn’t a lot left. Mendis has to come in sooner or later which could make an average bowling attack into a good one.

Neither of these two will be winning the tournament and the current odds in the winners market look about right. We saw that the Newlands pitch for the Deccan/Bangalore game was a lot better for batting and in the belief that Yusuf Pathan will like the surface a lot better and the Rajasthan top order remains ropey, I would be interested in the 13-2 with Corals.


Wagers

14 + Sixes in the Chennai v Delhi game with Betfair (odds unavailable at this stage)
Yusuf Pathan to top score for Rajasthan @ 13-2 (Corals.

Running Total - 4.05