The second half of the double header in the Indian Premier League on Sunday is the final match of the regular season and it sees the Chennai Super Kings going up against the Kings XI Punjab potentially with the final playoff place at stake.
Regardless of what happens in this match the Super Kings know they will be in the first qualifier on Tuesday unless something hugely unforeseen happens. Kings XI Punjab need to win this by a huge margin to make it through to the eliminator on Wednesday.
Chennai Super Kings
With a reasonable sized win here the Chennai Super Kings could go into the postseason on top of the pile. We should acknowledge that a hefty defeat could yet send them down to third place in their net run rate gets hammered but I’m sure they’ll have all the equations to hand to ensure that doesn’t happen.
What they will want is for their bowlers to put in another decent performance. They bowled well in Delhi last time out, albeit in favourable conditions, and if they are going to go on and win this tournament they will need to find a couple more tidy efforts with the ball next week. They seem to be fine with the bat even allowing for their loss on Friday.
Kings XI Punjab
Somehow despite winning five of their opening six matches this season the Kings XI Punjab have got into a position where they are going to have to go ballistic in their final match of the campaign for any chance of making it into the top four, when really it should have been automatic for them to make if after the start they had.
Two huge issues have arisen in their last seven matches. They seem unable to buy a run outside of their top three and their bowling has suddenly started getting carted. That is never a good combination at the best of times but it could not have come at a worse time for the Punjabi outfit. Nevertheless if they have a monster performance in them you just never know.
Team News
There is a lot of talk about leaving Dwayne Bravo out for a match as he has been getting clattered at the death and has barely batted in the tournament since the opening night of the season. David Willey could replace him if they go down that route.
It appears that Mujeeb-ul-Rahman will be thrown back into the side for this match. Whether he is fit or not remains to be seen but he is likely to be included anyway. Yuvraj Singh is expected to be fit but surely this is the match for David Miller.
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Betting
If this match was last week then you would imagine the Chennai Super Kings would be good things here but they don’t need to win and may not give everything here given that they need to get to Mumbai to play on Tuesday and perhaps more importantly Mujeeb looks to be back for the Kings XI Punjab. Throw in the fact Chennai only played on Friday and there isn’t much to like about the home side here. That said I hate backing sides who need huge wins so I’ll leave the result alone.
Given the situation that is arising in this match we should be able to take advantage of the sixes line. At 15.5 it isn’t particularly big anyway but when you think that whatever Chennai make the Kings XI need to win by more than 50 runs or with more than six overs in hand there’s going to be a bit of Reggie Biffington on display here. This isn’t the biggest ground at the best of times but when the likes of Chris Gayle, KL Rahul, Aaron Finch and potentially David Miller are let loose to slap it to all parts this line could be reduced to nothing very quickly. Chuck in Watson, Rayudu, Raina, Dhoni et al from the other side and this line isn’t high enough.
Tips
Back Over 15.5 sixes for a 5/10 stake at 1.90 with 888sport
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