The second half of Saturday’s Indian Premier League double header comes from Hyderabad as the Sunrisers look to get some revenge for the mauling they took in their first game of the season when they welcome the Royal Challengers Bangalore to town.
AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli were their majestic best that evening and the Sunrisers attack felt the full force of that but the home side have recovered fairly well since then and will fancy their chances a little more in this one.
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Since that heavy beating first up and a subsequent one against Kolkata the Sunrisers had won three in a row before a poor batting performance saw them comfortably beaten by Pune in their last match.
A theme of theirs throughout the tournament has been their batting. For me they rely far too much on their openers although Eoin Morgan has shown glimpses of form throughout the tournament. If the unknown Indian batsmen can start delivering then with their bowling attack they should be fine.
Royal Challengers Bangalore
This season has mirrored the last couple so far for the Challengers. They keep finding that you can have all the batting power in the world but if you don’t have a bowling attack you just become a sitting duck a lot of the time.
Since that opening win, Bangalore have only won one of their next four matches despite Virat Kohli being the top run scorer in the tournament. Until they find any semblance of a bowling attack they will continue to be inconsistent results wise.
Team news
Sunrisers might look to rotate their spinners with Karn Sharma likely to come in for Bipul Sharma. It remains to be seen what they do with the batting line up but unless Kane Williamson or Yuvraj Singh are suddenly available options look quite thin.
Bangalore have Chris Gayle back for this match after he has returned from paternity leave. He hasn’t been in the greatest of form but you don’t leave the world boss out of your side so we can assume he’ll go straight back in. Chris Jordan has been signed up but won’t arrive in time for this one.
Form
Sunrisers Hyderabad: LLWWWL
Royal Challengers Bangalore: WLLWL
Head to head: Sunrisers Hyderabad 3-4 Royal Challengers Bangalore
In Hyderabad: Sunrisers Hyderabad 2-1 Royal Challengers Bangalore
Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium
The four previous matches here have all been pretty low scoring and won by the chasing side which makes me wonder if sides don’t know what a good score is. The chasing team has often won with plenty to spare which tells me that this isn’t a bad wicket.
The wicket usually offers some carry and assistance to the seam bowlers but it generally flattens out to play well. The ground is fairly big in comparison to the one Bangalore usually play on but the boundaries are still accessible on a fast outfield.
Betting
There is certainly a case for the Sunrisers being value here in terms of the fact their bowling attack is better than Bangalore’s but there have been times that attack has been flogged this season and that mauling the Sunrisers took in Bangalore is more than enough to put me off them.
Instead I’m going to head for the boundaries again. I’m choosing the boundaries rather than the sixes because Bangalore aren’t hitting as many sixes this season as they have been. That might all change now Gayle is back but I’d need to see that is the case first.
The boundaries line is 36.5 here which looks high on what we’ve seen so far on this ground this season but there are enough reasons to think this will be the highest scoring match we’ve seen here just purely based on the lack of depth in both attacks.
The batsmen should be able to hit through the line here and if Bangalore bat first we’ve seen what they can do but if the Sunrisers bat first you’d expect them to notch a pretty decent total and one which Bangalore can pepper the boundary in reply to.
Tips
WON – Back Over 36.5 boundaries for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with William Hill
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