The Indian Premier League match on Friday comes from the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi where the Delhi Daredevils look to revive their faltering start to the season when they host the Kolkata Knight Riders.
One win in six matches is not the beginning to the campaign that the Daredevils would have wanted while Kolkata began well they have three wins and three defeats so far so they are struggling for a bit of consistency themselves.
Delhi Daredevils
There are usually casualties when a side begins as badly as the Delhi Daredevils have done and it has taken six matches for the captain, Gautam Gambhir to step down. Whether he stepped down or whether he was pushed we don’t really know but one thing that is for sure is his form has been awful and it is hard to captain a side when that is the case.
The bowling for Delhi just hasn’t been good enough, although ironically there were shoots of life in that department in their previous match. At the death especially they have been found wanting and that is something that needs to change. At no point over the course of the season has their batting line up fired completely.
Kolkata Knight Riders
Things have not been quite as bad for the Kolkata Knight Riders but they will be wanting to find a consistent run of form that closes the gap on the three sides who have shot clear of them in the table. They had won their last two before running into the Kings XI last time out but to be fair the rain didn’t help them although they were probably losing anyway.
The Kolkata batting line up has been in good nick over the course of the campaign and they have been able to get good platforms for Andre Russell to come in and go ballistic from. At times the Knight Riders bowling has gone around the park, which is a surprise with the quality that is in it, but I guess that is just a sign of the quality of batsmen that is in the IPL.
Team News
Gautam Gambhir has passed on the Delhi Daredevils captaincy to Shreyas Iyer and it would appear his place in the side will go to someone else too. Jason Roy trained on the eve of the match so could be involved but Chris Morris didn’t and may miss this one too.
Kolkata Knight Riders were sweating over the fitness of Andre Russell but the signs are that he has recovered from the niggle that forced him to stop bowling at the weekend. That could mean that the Knight Riders are unchanged.
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Betting
Will we see a reaction from Delhi Daredevils now they are under new captaincy or will it be much of the same? I guess this is the question we need to answer when weighing up a bet but it is all guesswork really which is never truly ideal. Kolkata have already walloped Delhi this season so my gut feel is they will win but something is holding me back from backing them.
Instead the bet I like is the performance of Glenn Maxwell which at 32.5 is a little on the low side. Given how much spin is in the Kolkata ranks and how well Maxwell plays spin I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see the Australian come out and open the batting here especially knowing how big a fan of him Ponting is. He could quite easily cover this line with the bat but there aren’t many innings he doesn’t contribute in the field whether in wickets or catches. He totalled 67pts in the reverse meeting and I expect him to reach 33 in this one.
Tips
WON – Back G.Maxwell’s Performance – Over 32.5pts for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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