It is the weekend and that means we are back to double header action in the Indian Premier League and the first game on Saturday has all the hallmarks of being an absolute epic as the Royal Challengers Bangalore host the Gujarat Lions.
Both sides are full of power and on the smallest ground in the tournament that has to be a catalyst for plenty of fireworks to get another busy weekend of action underway.
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Virat Kohli seemed to be revelling in the fact that his side are playing no lose cricket when he was speaking after their latest defeat to the Mumbai Indians but in realistic terms that defeat has left them needing snookers to make the playoffs.
Usually the batting has been the strength of the side but they didn’t bat brilliantly in the last match and that could lead to changes. Chris Gayle is yet to get into double figures in the tournament and he has to be vulnerable but Travis Head hasn’t pulled up many trees either.
Gujarat Lions
The Lions have been out of action since last weekend and that break might have come at a bad time as they had finally ended their losing slump and could have done with building up a little bit of momentum. As it is they will have had time to get everything in order for one last push.
The Lions’ batting had just started to wilt but their batting came to the party in the win over Kolkata and it will need to do likewise here although perhaps on this tiny ground the variety of their bowling attack could be the key to victory.
Team news
The Chris Gayle conundrum is becoming bigger and bigger. I suspect he’ll get another game but if he doesn’t find a score soon his season could end a lot quicker than he would have liked it to. Chris Jordan is another whose place in the side is on the vulnerable shelf.
Gujarat are going to be without their captain Suresh Raina who disappeared during the break for the birth of a child and hasn’t made it back in time for this one. Brendon McCullum is expected to take over the captaincy.
Form
Royal Challengers Bangalore: WLLWLLLWWL
Gujarat Lions: WWWLWWWLLLW
Head to head: Royal Challengers Bangalore 0-1 Gujarat Lions
In Bangalore: First meeting
M Chinnaswamy Stadium
This is the second last match on this ground in the regular season but with the reshuffle of venues for the playoffs the venue will stage two matches in the postseason here too.
The first four matches here were high scoring as you would expect them to be but the last one wasn’t like that. The wicket was a bit slow and tacky and the batsmen struggled to time the ball. If that was a sign of things to come then we might not get the scores we expect but if the wicket is true with the two sides on show here we should get some amazing cricket.
Unfortunately rain is forecast for some of the time but hopefully that misses the ground and we can get some excellent cricket in between arguably the two most powerful sides in the competition.
Betting
As ever I can’t be backing a side here without knowing the result of the toss and that is even more the case here with the threat of some dodgy weather although I guess you could argue that Gujarat would be value to defend a total more than anyone but the ground just isn’t defendable.
I’m going to take the chance that the match isn’t weather affected and if that is the case I’m expecting the sixes to really flow here. Whether Gayle does or doesn’t fire is almost irrelevant here but if he does the sixes total will be quite high.
It will be high anyway you would think with Kohli, de Villiers, Rahul, Baby, Smith, McCullum, Finch, Bravo and others all capable clearing big boundaries let alone these tiny things so the 15.5 line is nowhere near high enough in my eyes as long as the weather holds.
Tips
WON – Back Over 15.5 sixes for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Paddy Power
Back it here:
