Cricket: Indian Premier League

[kevshat]

I will play the 2nd match today. Going to go with 2 plays.

10pts Bangalore to beat Mumbai 6/4 Sportingbet

This is Mumbai's debut in the Indian Premier League and it looks as though their captain Sachin Tendulkar will be fit to play after missing the last two tests for India with an injury. Bangalore have already played and been comprehensively thrashed by Kolkata and it's that match which I think is why Bangalore are as big as 6/4.

Mumbai have Harbhajan Singh and Robin Uthappa at their disposal who are Indian but then the side is a bit inexperienced. The international spaces will be filled by Sanath Jayasuriya, Shaun Pollock, Dilhara Fernando and likely to be Luke Ronchi the big hitting wicket keeper who gets the 4th spot. Lasith Malinga misses out with injury. Their batting looks strong but equally could be exposed.

Bangalore will have learnt from that 1st game where they walked straight into an inspired knock from Brendon McCullum. They are unlikely to encounter an innings like that again and take that innings out, the match wasn't too bad. Praveen Kumar and Zaheer Khan will open their bowling, both are India internationals with Jacques Kallis backing them up. Sunil Joshi looked tidy with his left arm spin. Shivnerine Chanderpaul will come into the side in place of Ashley Noffke who is injured and Chanderpaul will probably open as Bangalore can't open with Dravid and Jaffer in this sort of cricket. Kallis, Boucher and even Kumar can all play big innings.

I don't see this match being as one sided as the odds suggest. Tendulkar may play without being fully fit while Jayasuriya can be hit or miss. I'm sure Bangalore will perform better with the bat than they did the other night and I think they can edge a close one here.

1pt S.Pollock Top Mumbai Batsman 18/1 Boylesports

As we know Shaun Pollock is a big hitting batsman and with this match playing played under lights, it could be that a top order fails and if it's Mumbai's which fails then Pollock can come in and steal the top score. That said however, it's not beyond the realms that Sachin sticks Pollock in up the order at 3 or 4 to provide some fireworks with the bat. When he connects, these boundaries are unlikely to be big enough and Pollock looks a huge price wherever he bats. Small stakes only but well worth a bet.

[boyd]

Are these games shown on TV anywhere?

[kevshat]

All on Setanta

[kevshat]

Bangalore did win a close match which I'm happier with than normal because I had to think about it for a while before committing to them after Friday night. +14 for the day because although Pollock came in and did what I expected him to, he came in just a bit too late. +17.94 for the tournament now. Will put up my thoughts on tomorrow's match later once I've had a decent look at it.

[kevshat]

Decided not to bet in tomorrow's match. I fully expect Kings XI Punjab to win but at a best price of 8/15 I'm not interested. I'll just take a watching brief here as I can't be backing Jaipur while they are without Smith, Dimi and their Pakistan trio, equally the margins between winning and losing a twenty20 match is so small that I'll never back a side at 8/15 in this format. I'm happy with where I am in this tournament and will wait for another day for my next bet .

[Sir Fernando]

Originally Posted by kevshat

Decided not to bet in tomorrow's match. I fully expect Kings XI Punjab to win but at a best price of 8/15 I'm not interested. I'll just take a watching brief here as I can't be backing Jaipur while they are without Smith, Dimi and their Pakistan trio, equally the margins between winning and losing a twenty20 match is so small that I'll never back a side at 8/15 in this format. I'm happy with where I am in this tournament and will wait for another day for my next bet .

looks a good decision Kev, Kings are about to lose again to Rajasthan Royals, Shane Watson looks like he's going to steer them home, tipped Kings Punjab to win the event overall, not looking such a good bet at the moment, long way to go, they need a win quickly, to kick start their Tournament though.

[kevshat]

Originally Posted by Sir Fernando

looks a good decision Kev, Kings are about to lose again to Rajasthan Royals, Shane Watson looks like he's going to steer them home, tipped Kings Punjab to win the event overall, not looking such a good bet at the moment, long way to go, they need a win quickly, to kick start their Tournament though.

Turned out to be a wise decision for sure. That's the beauty of twenty20 cricket for me. Punjab XI knew they were favourites and had the better batsmen but none of them took responsibility other than Yuvraj and that was that. He's inexperienced as a captain but he must've played under lights at Jaipur before and known dew is a problem late at night. Happy I left that game alone. I wouldn't worry or be confident about any outright yet. Still loads of games to go and you only need to be in the top 4 to progress so nobody is out of it by any means.

Going to play Tuesday's game.

10pts Delhi to beat Deccan Chargers 2.48 Betfair

Currently £762 available.

This match up is interesting. It's a bowling side vs a big hitting side and in the conditions this match is going to be played in, I have to favour the bowling side which is Delhi. Delhi had a good win in their opening match against Jaipur while the Deccan Chargers were getting beat on an awful pitch at Eden Gardens.

They'll be hoping that the pitch is better at their own ground and I'm sure it will be. The Deccan Chargers look all set to bring Shahid Afridi into their side to join Adam Gilchrist and Andrew Symonds in the side. Scott Styris is likely to be the 4th international player with RP Singh, Rohit Sharma and VVS Laxman providing good home quality.

Delhi are setting their side up the other way. They have put a lot of emphasis on keeping it tight in the field and have some really good international bowlers. So good in fact that it's quite possible that the now available Mohammad Asif won't get a game here. Glenn McGrath, Farveez Maharoof and Daniel Vettori are set to lead the bowling. Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, and Dinesh Karthik will provide good Indian batting while Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik provides a very safe option with the bat and the ball if necessary. Shikhar Dhawan hit a great 52 off 41 in the 1st match and looks a talent.

Conditions may well dictate who wins this and it will be interesting to see McGrath going against Gilchrist and Symonds but Delhi have a well balanced side and I just favour their solid bowling over Deccan Chargers' explosive batting with this match not starting until 8.00pm local time.

[Sir Fernando]

top shout again Kev, great price, easy victory for Sehwags boys.

[kevshat]

Originally Posted by Sir Fernando

top shout again Kev, great price, easy victory for Sehwags boys.

Cheers mate. They look the business to me and there's still AB de Villiers to come into that squad . +14.06 today after commission which puts my tournament total up to +32.00pts. Will look at tomorrow's match in more detail later this evening.

[kevshat]

No bet for me tomorrow. I've been leaning towards Mumbai but Tendulkar still isn't fit so Harbhajan will captain again and I wasn't that impressed with his captaincy the other night. Dwayne Bravo strengthens the Indians side which is a positive but that doesn't really balance it. As for Chennai, they're a side I like the look of but take Hussey out of their score on Saturday and it's not quite the score it looks. To many doubts for me in a match which could go either way and I can't get a definitive feel for either so I'll take a watching brief for this one.

[Sir Fernando]

Chennai vs Mumbai

Think Chennai are little on the short side at 4/7, so have decided to turn my attention to the top runner scorer market, with Tendulkar out for Mumbai, it may fall on the exciting Robin Uthappa to take up the mantle.

For Chennai, I think Matthew Hayden could dominate the Mumbai attack from the start and rack up a decent score, Hussey will again prove popular in this market after his ton as will big hitting Skipper Dhoni who failed lto.

pick 1; Robin Uthappa @ 9/2 top Mubai batsman

pick 2; Matt Hayden @ 3/1 top Chennai batsman.


small stakes, just for some interest, this afternoon.As i've got the afternoon off work.

[Sir Fernando]

Originally Posted by Sir Fernando

Chennai vs Mumbai

Think Chennai are little on the short side at 4/7, so have decided to turn my attention to the top runner scorer market, with Tendulkar out for Mumbai, it may fall on the exciting Robin Uthappa to take up the mantle.

For Chennai, I think Matthew Hayden could dominate the Mumbai attack from the start and rack up a decent score, Hussey will again prove popular in this market after his ton as will big hitting Skipper Dhoni who failed lto.

pick 1; Robin Uthappa @ 9/2 top Mubai batsman 2nd 43 runs

pick 2; Matt Hayden @ 3/1 top Chennai batsman. 1st 81 runs


small stakes, just for some interest, this afternoon.As i've got the afternoon off work.

it was definately too close to call

Chennai Super Kings	208/5 (20/20 ov)
Mumbai Indians	202/7 (20.0/20 ov)
Hayden smashed 81 for the hosts and Uthappa scored 43 only to be beaten by Nayar who got 45, was hoping his stumps would get rearranged in the late thirty's. Nevermind.

[kevshat]

Nice shout on Hayden mate and really unlucky with Uthappa. Great game of cricket that .

[kevshat]

Another game I'm leaving alone tomorrow I think although I'll be around tomorrow so I might change my mind. At some point in this tournament, Afridi, Gilchrist and Symonds are going to seriously catch fire and that's the main thing putting me off backing Jaipur. Graeme Smith is likely to debut for them though and Warnie's captain so it's worth considering them I guess. I'm certainly not interested in Deccan at 8/15 despite their batting promise.

[Sir Fernando]

Deccan VS Rajasthan

looking at the top runscorer market again today.

Deccan
Adam Gilchrist @ 7/2 6pts
Rohit Sharma @ 6/1 4pts


Rajasthan
Kamran Akmal @ 9/2 5pts
Mohammad Kaif @ 9/2 5pts

spreading a bit more with two batsmen selected per team.

[Matt]

Warniee Warnieeeeeeeeeeee

(though what an utterly awful decision to bowl Symonds last over, absolutely crazy, never understand why any captain bowls a spinner last over)

[Sir Fernando]

yet game that goes down to the wire, Deccan bowling options were simply woeful, not being able to defend 212??

[kevshat]

Another great game in this tournament earlier. Little bit gutted I didn't go with my hunch for Jaipur but it saved me a load of anxiety at least . Having not had a bet for a couple of days, I'm betting on Friday's match.

10pts Mumbai to beat Kings XI Punjab 11/10 Blue Square

This match sees two sides who are yet to win in this IPL battle it out at Mohali. It also sees a likely battle of India's greatest star against one of India's latest stars as Sachin Tendulkar leads his Mumbai side against Yuvraj Singh's Mohali team. Mumbai were unlucky last time out as they came just short of chasing down 209. On Monday, Jaipur easily chased down Kings Punjab's 166.

Kings XI Punjab will be hoping their Sri Lankan duo can score some runs, particularly Jayawardene. They could actually bring Ramnaresh Sarwan into the side but I'd expect them to stick with the Sri Lankan duo. James Hopes will continue to open with Yuvraj coming in down the order. With the ball, all eyes will be on Brett Lee. Piyush Chawla, the young leggie is having a shocker of a series and if Mumbai bat 2nd the dew factor could negate his spin again. Sreesanth will doubtless blow up at sometime in this match, particularly if Habhajan is at the other end while Hopes has been pretty expensive so far in this tournament.

Mumbai hope to welcome Sachin Tendulkar back into their side and he's a racing certainty to replace Luke Ronchi at the top of the innings. He'll open alongside Sanath Jayasuriya with Robin Uthappa batting at 3. Dwayne Bravo, Ronchi and Shaun Pollock can all whack it down the order while there could be a promotion up for the order for Abhishek Nayar who was so nearly the hero in Chennai. Shaun Pollock is bound to be as tight as ever with the ball while Dwayne Bravo, Ashish Nehra and Harbhajan can all be hard to get away.

This Kings XI Punjab side have flattered to deceive a bit in this tournament so far and their bowling attack continues to go round the park. The dew will play a part here but while both batting sides are evenly matched, Mumbai have a clear edge in the bowling at the minute and I'll go with them to get their IPL up and running with their 1st win.

[Sir Fernando]

Waiting to see if Tendulkar plays..

going into the top run scorer market again,

Punjab - Yuvraj singh @ 5/1

Mumbai - Robin Uthappa @ 9/2

[WoodyTHFC]

Going for my outright pick Kings Punjab 4/5 10 pts. They have been pretty poor so far especially in the bowling department and whilst there is time for that to change they need to start doing it quickly but against another side without a win, there maybe a good opportunity. I picked Punjab outright as I felt their indian bowlers would hold them in good stead but that has not been the case and when Lee leaves, their bowling will get weaker which is a hige concern. I felt the likes of Sreesanth, Pathan (actually not done too badly), Chawla, Powar and V Singh would provide a strong ebough basis to the attack but they have been pretty poor and Powar and Singh who after all are international players, have not even played which I felt was strange. That may well change today with one of the two, if not both being line up for a call up and that should provide that extra bit of depth to the bowling that has been missing so far. The danger is that by putting of them in the team the batting can be weakened but I dont see that as the case as i look at someone like Mota, who must be a bowler coming in at no 10, yet only bowled one over in the last match and two in the first (one wicket but expensive), surely Powar and Singh even though they are not world beaters would contribute more and therefore boost the team. Punjab's batting didnt really fire last time but they played well enough in the first game and there are signs that Yurvaj was coming into form which is very important in the last game, Sangakarra, hopes and the other foreign player (could be sarwan) look a strongish line up on paper. Mumbai could be boosted by Tendulkar but that is not for certain and without him, I think that gives Punjab a slight edge on the batting side of things, despie Mumbai's brave attempt the other night. Mumbai bowling also looks a little bit weak and unlike Punjab i dont think they quite have the resources to change that without changing the dynamics of their team and considering that I think Kings Punjab may have a slight edge if they just change their team a touch and that gives them the selection.