The second half of the double header in the Indian Premier League on Saturday afternoon sees the form side Kings XI Punjab taking on another team who will be looking to gatecrash the top four in the shape of the Sunrisers Hyderabad in Dubai.
Kings XI looked down and out at the halfway mark this season but they have completely revived their fortunes and look one of the dark horses for the title now, while the Sunrisers go into this match off the back of a win so this should be an intriguing contest.
Kings XI Punjab
Nothing seemed to be going right for the Kings XI Punjab in the early stages of the season. They didn’t play well very often and then when they did they contrived to find a way to lose but then Chris Gayle became fit and was put into the side and his emergence has given the Punjab a new lease of life. He hasn’t just strengthened in an area where the Kings XI were struggling at number three but he has freed up the likes of Nicholas Pooran to be able to play his natural game and they look a lot stronger as a result.
What that has done is guaranteed plenty of runs and it has just taken the pressure off their bowling attack which was really struggling earlier in the competition. Suddenly they can play with a bit of freedom and use their change ups and a side who were going round the park are starting to find ways of restricting sides and getting them under pressure. Kings XI have beaten the top three teams in their last three outings and should be full of confidence going into this one.
Sunrisers Hyderabad
The Sunrisers Hyderabad won their last match and what will have given them such confidence from that win is the fact that it came against another of the teams who are looking to break into the top four in Rajasthan Royals. You only get two points for a win in this competition but some wins are more important than others, and that was a vital one. They will be looking to build on that here and put themselves in pole position in the chasing pack.
If the Sunrisers are going to push on and deliver a strong finish to the season then they are going to need to bat with the same purpose that they did in the last game. Manish Pandey led the way and that was important too as they now know that they can win matches without their openers doing the bulk of the work. In an ideal world their bowling would be a little more impressive but to be fair even they did a good enough job against the Royals.
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Key Men
As always if you want to beat the Sunrisers Hyderabad you need to keep their openers under control so the spell of Mohammad Shami will be important for the chances of the Kings XI. If he can get rid of either the Punjab side will be in front early.
The Sunrisers Hyderabad openers don’t fail as a pair too often but should that happen again here then all eyes will be on Manish Pandey to see if he can back up his pyrotechnics from the previous match and lead his side to another decent total here.
Betting
I went under on the boundaries line in the first match of the day on Saturday and I’m going the other way around for this one and taking the over on the 37.5 line. The Kings XI batting is absolutely full of boundaries and we saw in the previous match that the Sunrisers have found more boundary hitters as well, and with Jason Holder in their side their batting actually looks to carry a little bit more depth to it which does the boundary chances no harm.
There are two other reasons why I like the boundaries in this contest. The first of those is that although the Kings XI bowlers have improved in recent times there is still an element about them that they can be hit around the park while the same can be said of the Sunrisers. The other thing I like is it is looking increasingly likely that net run rate is going to determine placings in the final table so when teams have a game under control they will look to get the match won quickly with boundaries. I like the over here.
Tips
Back Over 37.5 boundaries for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with William Hill
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