There is one match in the Indian Premier League on Wednesday as the IPL season heads to Guwahati for the clash between the finalists of last season, Rajasthan Royals, and the Punjab Kings with both sides looking to back up opening wins.
The Rajasthan Royals were probably the most impressive performers in the opening set of matches but the Punjab Kings produced a decent showing of their own so there is plenty of reason to think we could be treated to a good game here.
Rajasthan Royals
I think heading into the season everyone was comfortable with what the Rajasthan Royals would offer up with the bat. They have a wealth of batting depth and some special players in their top order too in the form of Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson. Where the question marks came in were with the ball where they looked a genuine bowler light in the squad let alone in the XI with a couple of bowling injuries since the auction costing them dearly.
You wouldn’t have thought that was the case though with the bowling effort they showed against the Sunrisers Hyderabad. We should recognise that the bowlers were defending a very good total but the way they went about their business was very impressive. They took early wickets with the new ball and never looked back. I do think in time the Royals will be better as a chasing side but if they can keep on taking early wickets it will make up for the lack of depth they do have with the ball.
Punjab Kings
The Punjab Kings were another side who had a few question marks over them going into the season because of injuries. Jonny Bairstow just felt like a big loss when it was confirmed he wouldn’t be fit to come to the IPL but then to not have Liam Livingstone available for their opener too almost compounded the misery. It is to their credit therefore that they were able to come out on top in their opening match, although it could be argued that the rain helped them when it arrived.
Given that they were without Bairstow and Livingstone, and while Bairstow ruled himself out fairly early Livingstone didn’t so it would have thrown their plans up in the air, for Punjab to score 191 in their 20 overs was a decent effort. They did well enough with the ball and were more than in the game when the rain came but they would have needed their classy closers with the ball to be at their best because Kolkata had dangerous players at the crease.
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Key Players
Trent Boult was absolutely superb in the opening game of the tournament for the Rajasthan Royals and with the Punjab Kings having plenty of quality at the top of their order the home side will need the Kiwi to deliver the goods here too.
Bhanuka Rajapaksa blasted his way to 50 in the opening match of the competition and it is certainly no bad thing that a free and big hitter has hit the ground running. He will enjoy conditions here and should go well again.
Betting
This ground in Guwahati is a high scoring ground. There have been two ODIs played here in the past and all four scores in those matches have been over 300 and there was a T20 here last year where India made 237/3 and it was only good enough to get the job done by 16 runs. We’ve seen brilliant pitches throughout the competition so far with plenty of grass on them and with only two matches here at what is a relatively new venue for the IPL I certainly expect a great pitch.
Rajasthan Royals would probably want a great pitch which allows their batting strength to come to the fore while matches between these two teams generally produce high scoring classics. That is exactly what I expect here and even though I got burned on the boundary bet by one boundary on Tuesday I’m going back to it here. There is just too much batting power on show at a venue which is conducive to high scoring. I like over 42.5 boundaries in this match.
Tips
Back Over 42.5 boundaries for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with William Hill
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