After the rain beat everyone in Bangalore on Tuesday everyone will be hoping for much better on Wednesday when the Indian Premier League is back in Pune. The match on Wednesday sees the Rising Pune Supergiant taking on the Kolkata Knight Riders in what is suddenly a big match for both sides.
The Knight Riders will go back to the top of the pile if they can pick up a win in this match but the Rising Pune Supergiant have been living up to their name recently and will move level with Kolkata on 10pts should they win.
Rising Pune Supergiant
After a really sticky start to the season the Rising Pune side have won their last two matches and have escaped the 
logjam that was forming. They are now in the playoff spots and are there to be shot at but they will move above the Sunrisers Hyderabad and into third place with a win here and can look up rather than down.
Pune’s issue of having an overseas captain and an expensive overseas player have been balanced out with the emergence of Rahul Tripathi and Jaydev Unadkat to their ranks with the latter providing a different option at the death. That is certainly something that the side have benefitted from as everyone else has raised their game accordingly.
Kolkata Knight Riders
The Kolkata Knight Riders go into this match off the back of one of the most convincing wins in Indian Premier League history despite only making 131 with the bat. They didn’t let that bother them though and bowled Bangalore out for just 49 for a convincing win. That did of course paper over a few cracks which shouldn’t be ignored.
Despite those cracks the Knight Riders have won five of their seven matches so far so they are perfectly placed to launch a title campaign especially if the wickets start to deteriorate for their spinners to feast on. They have kept their spinners fresh for the second half of the season in case that happens.
Team News
It would be a surprise if Rising Pune made any changes for this match. There is always the chance that Adam Zampa could come into the side but no overseas spots are automatically available.
Kolkata Knight Riders will definitely be making at least one change to their side as they have left Nathan Coulter-Nile back home for workload management reasons. Depending on the wicket Trent Boult or Shakib-al-Hasan will replace him.
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Betting
Nathan Coulter-Nile has been a big boost for the Kolkata Knight Riders’ bowling attack so I could see why people might like the Rising Pune Supergiant with him not playing this match but I can’t help but feel there is a significant advantage for the side who bats second here.
With that in mind I’m happy to get on over 38.5 boundaries. So far in Pune in this tournament we have had 47 boundaries, 38 when Pune were skittled for 108 and 46. Both these sides love to find the boundaries and with Coulter-Nile not around to set the tone I’m expecting another high scoring match where the boundaries will flow.
I’m also going to take one in the man of the match market where Ben Stokes is worthy of support at 12/1. Stokes is a brilliant fielder but he delivered the good with the ball in the previous game and I’m pretty confident that the confidence he will have taken from that will assist his batting. He’s due with the bat and if he puts all three facets together he will have every chance should the Supergiant win.
Tips
WON – Back Over 38.5 boundaries for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with William Hill
Back it here:
VOID – Back B.Stokes Man of the Match for a 1/10 stake at 13.00 with Unibet
Back him here:
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