The knockout cricket wasn’t scheduled to begin until next week in the Indian Premier League but such is the state of the league table we have an early start as the first match of the two on Sunday is exactly that as the Rising Pune Supergiant host the Kings XI Punjab.
A win for the Supergiant sends them into the qualifier against the Mumbai Indians on Tuesday but a defeat sees them exit the tournament. Kings XI have to win to stay in the tournament. If they do win they will face Kolkata Knight Riders in the eliminator on Wednesday. A loss and they’re gone.
Rising Pune Supergiant
The Supergiant have already messed up one chance to secure their play-off spot but such has been Kolkata’s demise that not only will they secure a spot in the postseason with a win here but they would give themselves two bites of the cherry to get to the final which would be a massive bonus.
If they are going to win they will need to handle the pressure better than they did against Delhi in their last match. It was actually a bit of a concern how they went about that run chase and if they find themselves batting second here they will need to show a lot of fortitude. On the plus side they look to be bowling well.
Kings XI Punjab
A week ago the Kings XI needed to win their last three matches for a chance to qualify for the play-offs and they have won their first two to give themselves this shot at making it through to next week. In each of those matches they have held their nerve well and that bodes well as that is what you need to do in knockout cricket.
That said, prior to those two wins they made a mess of a match against the Gujarat Lions which had they won they would have been in a much better position than they currently are. Kings XI need to bowl well if they are going to come through this match as their batting doesn’t look too bad at the minute.
Team News
We know the Supergiant are without Imran Tahir and Faf du Plessis from now on so even though they lost narrowly to Delhi they might well go into the match unchanged.
Kings XI Punjab remain without David Miller and Hashim Amla and they are now without Eoin Morgan too. Darren Sammy is pushing to get into the side but his time might not have come yet.
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Betting
With all the pressure that is on this match picking the winner isn’t going to be easy. I think the side that handles the pressure the best will win it and it might just be that whoever bats first puts up a decent enough score for scoreboard pressure to come into play and they will win.
Whoever wins this one I’m not convinced it will be a high scoring match. Obviously the game is a huge one and it takes a lot of guts to take risks in these types of matches while on the flip side of that strange decisions get made when that scoreboard pressure comes into play. I’m sure we’ll get a few twists and turns in this match but I’m less convinced we’ll see more than 336.5 runs.
Ben Stokes leaves after this match so I’m sure he will want to depart by having a big say in his side making it through to the play-offs and at 10/1 he is a nice price to be the man of the match. We know how good he can be with the bat and with the ball and we saw in their last match just what he can do in the field too. Stokes made 50 in the reverse fixture between these two and a repeat with an impact in the field makes him a leading player for the MOM award.
Tips
WON – Back Under 336.5 total runs for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Back it here:
Back B.Stokes Man of the Match for a 1/10 stake at 11.00 with 888sport
Back him here:
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