The last two sides get their Indian Premier League seasons underway on Tuesday when the pre-tournament favourites Royal Challengers Bangalore take on the Sunrisers Hyderabad in what should be a cracking game at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Both sides have plenty of quality in their ranks and so after three one sided matches in the competition to date we should be set for a cracking game of cricket to complete the first round of games.
Royal Challengers Bangalore
The favourites were given that status based purely on their batting line up. They could logically field a top four of Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli. AB de Villiers and Shane Watson which is actually quite frightening for any bowling attack in this or any other tournament.
The acid test for Bangalore will come, as it always does, when they have the ball in their hands. If they can restrict sides throughout the competition then they have a chance of going all the way but if they don’t although their matches will be good watches they might not come out on top of as many of them as they would need to.
Sunrisers Hyderabad
The Sunrisers narrowly missed out on a playoff spot last season so they know they have to improve ahead of this campaign and one of the areas where they could do with the most improvement lies with the bat where their middle order were particularly shoddy last season.
They have strengthened that middle order with the addition of Yuvraj Singh although he will miss the beginning of the season which isn’t ideal so it will be interesting to see how they formulate the make up of their side for this game.
Team news
The Royal Challengers have been hit by the injuries to Mitchell Starc and to Samuel Badree so their bowling attack has a flimsy look about it and if their Indian bowlers don’t stand up they could be a bit of cannon fodder. Adam Milne looks likely to lead the attack.
Dave Warner is a given for one of the overseas picks for the Sunrisers while Kane Williamson is highly likely to play. With Yuvraj out injured Moises Henriques looks likely to be picked in the middle order so the remaining option is between Trent Boult or Mustafiqur Rahman with the latter likely to get the nod.
Form
Royal Challengers Bangalore: L W NR W L
Sunrisers Hyderabad: W W W L L
Head to head: 3-3
M Chinnaswamy Stadium
This is the smallest stadium in the competition and with the ground being slightly at altitude the ball always flies further here. That makes for high scoring matches and plenty of sixes and boundaries.
We saw the tracks a little more tired in the recent T20 World Cup but tired tracks won’t suit the home side here. They want good wickets that their explosive batting order can play with freedom on and that is exactly the wicket I would expect to see here.
Betting
Bangalore start out as the favourites for this match but they look a little short to me. I can’t trust them either with their bowling attack or on this pitch unless I knew they were bowling first. This ground is almost impossible to defend so I’d hate to be on an odds on shot and then find out they bat first.
I considered the sixes in this match but with Virat Kohli, Kane Williamson and Shikhar Dhawan in the top three for either side there are a few boundary hitters rather than six hitters and if Chris Gayle were to fail, then the line might well be a touch on the high side.
Instead I’ve decided to focus on Dave Warner and his runs. Since putting on a Sunrisers shirt he has a fantastic record against Bangalore. In four innings he has scores of 61, 59, 57 and 52* so this is clearly an opponent he likes.
In years gone by he will have faced the likes of Mitchell Starc and he isn’t around for Bangalore here. There is no doubt this looks the weakest this Bangalore attack has looked for a while so I’m very interested in Warner’s run line which looks too low at 20.5 based on the evidence of the previous scores he has made against this opposition.
Tips
WON – Back D.Warner Over 20.5 runs for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Betway
