Opening Day

Two good fixtures to kick off the IPL and we'll get an early look at one of the tournament favourites, Chennai. Their team is strong, virtually picks itself and will feature one Andrew Flintoff. But 5-4 on? Surely the lesson of last year's tournament was not to lump on short-priced teams, particularly early in the competition. Having tipped Mumbai to win the tournament, I'm bound to find odds of 11-10 an insult and you can get slightly higher if you go decimal with Betfair.

In the top batsmen markets, M S Dhoni is an eye-catching 6-1 with Stan James to score the most runs for Chennai.

Rajasthan are similarly overpriced to beat Bangalore in the second opening day fixture, but not by enough to make them an interesting betting proposition. The clean-hitting Yusuf Pathan looks a good bet to top score for Rajasthan at 6-1.

And though I tend to stick to the main markets, it might be worth noting that in domestic cricket over the last two seasons, it has been rare for teams to pass 150 in twenty overs whilst the average number of fours in a game is around the 24 mark. Though the specialist markets for Total Fours and Total Match Runs are immature on the exchanges at the moment, they might be worth looking at closer to the off.


Wagers

Mumbai Indians to beat Chennai Super Kings @ 2.26 (Betfair)
M S Dhoni to be top Chennai batsman @ 6-1 (Stan James)
Yusuf Pathan to be top Rajasthan batsman @ 6-1 (Bet 365)