The final match of the league phase of the Indian Premier League season takes place on Sunday when the Delhi Daredevils host the Royal Challengers Bangalore in what is effectively a straight knockout in Raipur.
It is possible for both sides to go through but that would need the Sunrisers Hyderabad to win the earlier match in the day. If they don’t do that the winners here will progress and for the losers that will be it for the campaign.
Delhi Daredevils
The Daredevils kept their hopes of a playoff spot alive on Friday night when they edged out the Sunrisers Hyderabad off the final ball of the match. They were indebted to their youngsters with the bat and the fact they delivered under that pressure has to bode well for Delhi from here on in.
Delhi have chopped and changed their batting line up in this season so far but you would think now is the time for their number one combination with both the bat and ball. They can take comfort from the fact that they beat Bangalore in the reverse fixture.
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Just when it looked like this was going to be a crazy season of scoring a mountain of runs but losing all the time the Royal Challengers have found a combination and have hit a really top patch of form. Chris Gayle’s return to form has helped but the form of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers has been the real catalyst for success.
There are still a few issues about this Bangalore bowling attack but it is getting an awful lot better than it was although I guess it was always going to improve when they are regularly defending 200+ or they know their batsmen can chase down a score of that kind.
Team news
Chris Morris missed the win over the Sunrisers on Friday with a niggle but if he is fit he will surely return for this one. Nathan Coulter-Nile hasn’t offered a lot in this tournament yet and it could be him who makes way.
Royal Challengers Bangalore might want to bring an extra spinner into the side but unless they decide to do that we should expect them to keep the same combination that has really cleared into top form.
Form
Delhi Daredevils: LWWWLWWLLWLW
Royal Challengers Bangalore: WLLWLLLWWLWWW
Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium
We saw our first match on this ground on Friday night and the pitch looked a good cricket one with pace and bounce but not a lot stopping the batsmen from scoring. This is a big ground and ones and twos were turned into twos and threes in the previous game.
I didn’t see another pitch being prepared during that match and with this being the last game of the tournament on this ground it makes sense if the same pitch is going to be used so that has to be taken into account when betting on this one.
Betting
We’ve basically got a quarter final on our hands here. Bangalore are plenty short enough but with the way Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers are batting that is entirely justified. I’ve a feeling Delhi will put up a decent showing here but whether it will be enough of one to get the win they need remains to be seen.
It is almost impossible to take Bangalore on with the way they are batting at the minute so I’m not going to do that. Instead I’ll look at the other markets for a bet once again.
With the way Kohli and de Villiers are going you would think this will automatically be a high scoring game, or at least the Bangalore innings will be and that is without mentioning Chris Gayle and Shane Watson not to mention KL Rahul too but Delhi have batsmen who like to find the ropes themselves in the likes of Quinton de Kock, Pant, Nair and Duminy as well as the hitters down the order.
It would be stretching it to say either of these attacks are particularly good. Delhi can get it right at times but we have to remember this isn’t the venue their built their attack for so I think the 39.5 boundaries line is attainable.
158 played 161 here on Friday and there were 35 boundaries. You’ve got to think scores will be in the 170-180 range in this one which should equate to getting the extra five boundaries needed.
Tips
Back Over 39.5 boundaries for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with William Hill
Back them here:
