There are four sides on six points in the Indian Premier League table and two of them meet in the opening match of the two in the competition on Saturday when the Kolkata Knight Riders take on the Kings XI Punjab.
Kolkata have three wins in five matches so far this season while the Kings XI have three from four. Whoever wins here will move to the top of the table and will be controlling their own destiny although you get the feeling the match could be bigger for Kolkata.
Kolkata Knight Riders
After two defeats in their first three matches the Kolkata Knight Riders have now won their last two and look to be getting into something of a groove despite their batting not fully functioning as one complete unit. A weird and random change to their batting line up halfway through the campaign didn’t help but they are winning which is important.
The positive is that with three wins to their name and Chris Lynn yet to fire at any stage in the tournament they have a lot more to come. Andre Russell took one catch in the last match and never bowled so even he has more to offer which must be a positive. Their bowling needs to deliver the goods more regularly though.
Kings XI Punjab
One of the surprises of the tournament so far have been the Kings XI Punjab and much like their opponents here you get the feeling there is a whole lot more to come from them. Chris Gayle has completely lit up this competition so far and when he fires his teams generally win but Aaron Finch and Yuvraj Singh are yet to make an impact and you can’t keep good men down for long.
If there is a concern for the Kings XI it could come in the form of their bowlers. Their seamers are going around the park and if they get on a track where their spinners are ineffective then you could see them having some issues. That said if Andrew Tye and his bag of tricks suddenly come good then they have every chance.
Team News
There are no signs of any potential changes to the Kolkata Knight Riders side for this match but you have to think Mitchell Johnson will come back in soon. That said none of their seamers are really presenting a problem to date.
Axar Patel is waiting in the wings for the Kings XI Punjab and it might be time to bring him back into the side. David Miller is another who could come into the side should they want to play a genuine finisher.
[the_ad_group id=”3624″]
Betting
This is one of those matches where I’m not sure I want to bet on the match outcome before we know the outcome of the toss. In fairness with the quality spin options that both sides have it wouldn’t be a surprise if either defended a score here but at the same time I’m not sure you would want to back either to do so given the small dimensions of this ground.
Those dimensions should allow us to get the sixes flowing once again though. So far in the matches here we have seen sixes totals of 19, 7 and 20 with the seven being the match against the Sunrisers Hyderabad who by and large are not conducive to sixes either with bat in hand or ball. These two definitely are though. Both these sides have conceded 175 regularly and if they do that here over 14.5 sixes should land especially if one of Lynn, Gayle, Russell or Finch get going.
Tips
VOID – Back Over 14.5 sixes for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with William Hill
Back it here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2018
