We have another double header in the Indian Premier League on Sunday as the four teams who weren’t in action on Saturday get the chance to strut their stuff once again with the competition beginning to head towards the halfway mark of the league phase.
The first match of the two on Sunday comes from Sharjah as the Mumbai Indians continue their title defence when they go up against the Sunrisers Hyderabad in a match in which the winning team will join Saturday’s winners on six points.
Mumbai Indians
It has been a bit of a shaky start to the season for the Mumbai Indians. They are on a lost-win-lost-win pattern so far so they will be looking for a bit of consistency to get themselves firmly in the top four from where they can attempt to retain the title later in the season. To be fair to them, they will know they should have won the second of the matches they lost after turning a hopeless position into a winning one, only to throw it away again.
The Mumbai batting has been on point for the majority of the tournament. It has scored 190+ in the last three matches so the fact they lost one of those will come as a big surprise to a team who often prides itself on its bowlers. It is likely to be the batting that will be needed here though because we’ve seen six scores of 200+ in the three matches played on this Sharjah ground so far in the competition, and more of the same is expected here.
Sunrisers Hyderabad
After a shaky start to their season the Sunrisers Hyderabad have turned things around. They lost their opening two matches pretty tamely but to their credit they have bounced back and made it two wins and two losses from their opening four matches. Their batting has looked much more solid in their last two outings and that could be a key feature here because clearly they are going to need to score a mountain of runs to come out on top in this one.
The Sunrisers’ bowling hasn’t always been convincing in the tournament but there have been signs that it is starting to come to the party, although the injury suffered to Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the previous match could mean that some adjustments have to be made to the attack for this one. Sunrisers have been relying on their spinners in the middle overs but that would be a brave tactic on this ground with these short boundaries.
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Key Men
Quinton de Kock hasn’t really got going in this tournament yet but it would help Mumbai Indians build a big score if they can keep a left and right hand partnership together for a while. If he can start teeing off it could prove crucial.
The same thing applies for the Sunrisers Hyderabad too. David Warner is the only left-hander in the regular top five so there is a lot on his shoulders to deliver the goods here. We know these boundaries aren’t short enough for him that is for sure.
Betting
Speaking of boundaries it is those that I like in this match and lots of them. The boundaries line sits at 48.5 which feels like a massive line but it isn’t really when you think the three matches on this ground thus far have yielded 51, 63 and 58 boundaries and the latter of those came on Saturday when Kolkata were reduced to 122-6 at one stage. This is a quick scoring ground and the boundaries are both tiny and very accessible. I’ve been playing the sixes on this ground so far but with the likes of Kane Williamson potentially batting for a while and not being the biggest six hitter in the world I think the boundaries are the safer option than continue to chase a sixes line that is growing higher and higher.
I will play the sixes in some form though and that comes in the shape of Kieron Pollard to hit over 1.5 of them. The West Indian has been in fine fettle in the last two matches with solid scores and nine sixes on much bigger boundaries than the one he is going to face here. Sometimes with these markets you can worry that he won’t get to the crease but Mumbai usually send Pollard in to finish a chase even if there isn’t a lot to do in it and actually teams push so hard here they naturally lose wickets. There aren’t boundaries in the world too big for this bloke but these certainly aren’t so at odds against the over 1.5 sixes from Pollard’s bat looks too big to me.
Tips
Back Over 48.5 boundaries for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with William Hill
Back it here:
WON – Back K.Pollard – Over 1.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 2.25 with Coral
Back him here:
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