The weekend has arrived and that means that we have a double header in the Indian Premier League on Saturday with the opening match seeing the Royal Challengers Bangalore hosting the Rising Pune Supergiants in a match neither can afford to lose.
Bangalore go into the match with just two wins to their name although they’ve played fewer matches than any other team in the tournament. Pune have one more win and pretty much need to win out if they are to push for the playoffs.
Royal Challengers Bangalore
The tale for the Royal Challengers is a familiar one. They can score any number of runs but they haven’t been able to deny the opposition scoring more and that trend is set to continue until they sort their bowling attack out.
With Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers and Shane Watson in their ranks this Bangalore side is always going to be unbalanced so they need to find some Indian bowlers who will step up and be counted to help out their batsmen.
Rising Pune Supergiants
It has been a wretched first season for the Supergiants and even a win over a strange Delhi line up last time out has done nothing for them but if it launches a run of good form then they might still sneak into the playoffs but you would have to say with three wins from nine matches that is unlikely.
Usman Khawaja and George Bailey have arrived and will boost the batting but like the Royal Challengers it has been the bowling that has let the Supergiants down and there appears to be no quick fix to that issue.
Team news
Surely the time has come for Chris Jordan to be given a debut for Bangalore. They leak runs throughout the innings but at least he could give them two solid overs at the death if not more if they want. Tabraiz Shamsi could be the one to make way.
Pune got a much needed win last time out and although they weren’t totally convincing against Delhi they got the job done and that might be enough for them to be unchanged in this one.
Form
Royal Challengers Bangalore: WLLWLLL
Rising Pune Supergiants: WLLLLWLLW
Head to head: Royal Challengers Bangalore 1-0 Rising Pune Supergiants
In Bangalore: First meeting
M Chinnaswamy Stadium
The M Chinnaswamy finally played to type in the last match on the ground when Kolkata chased down a 180+ target with absolute ease and I’m expecting the run scoring to continue here again.
We know what we’ll get on this ground. It is tiny, the wicket is usually good to bat on and with it being a day game there is no atmospheric condition change to effect either side. As ever you want to be chasing on this ground.
Betting
I think Pune are a decent price here but as ever I can’t be betting on the match outcome before the toss because you just can’t defend around here. We’ve already seen 191 and 185 chased down here and that is a trend which will continue so although Pune are value that value is lessened unless they win the toss.
As ever around here I will head to the sixes market where both sides have enough in them to make a 15.5 line look quite low. They also have bowling attacks which can go the distance as well so I’m confident were going to see some big hits.
We’ve got Gayle, Rahul, de Villiers, Watson, Kohli, Rahane, Khawaja, Dhoni, Bailey, Perera and others all going for us here and that is a lot of six hitting power on a ground which isn’t big at all. 15.5 looks achievable to me here.
Tips
WON – Back Over 15.5 sixes for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Skybet
Back them here:
