Top spot is up for grabs in the first part of the opening double header of the Indian Premier League season when the Royal Challengers Bangalore face the Rajasthan Royals in the early match in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.
Amazingly no team in the tournament has made it to three wins yet but one of these will do and whoever it is will hold the advantage over the rest of the teams for a few hours at least. These two have been very entertaining so far this season and hopefully that remains the case here.
Royal Challengers Bangalore
When the Royal Challengers Bangalore looked like they were being easily disposed of in their opening match by the Sunrisers Hyderabad this looked like it was going to be a familiar season of struggle for Virat Kohli and his men. Incredibly they turned that match around only to fall in a heap against the Kings XI Punjab in the next one. To their credit they rebounded well to edge out the defending champions Mumbai Indians in a Super Over in another match they should have lost.
Credit must be given to the Royal Challengers for turning these matches around but those games turned on poor cricket from their opponents rather than anything they did which would be a concern. The big issue Bangalore need to solve is their death bowling. It doesn’t seem to matter who Virat Kohli chooses to bowl at the death they all go the distance and that clearly isn’t good. He needs a few runs himself because he has started the tournament very slowly.
Rajasthan Royals
If there has been a team to watch for entertainment in this competition then it has been the Rajasthan Royals. They have conceded more than 175 in all three of their matches so far and scored more than 200 in a couple of them. A number of their batsmen have adopted the ‘here for a good time rather than a long time’ approach but it has certainly worked. They have some hitters down the order which really stretches out their batting order.
There is no concern over the Royals’ batting but the bowling is starting to become a real issue. If you take Jofra Archer out of the equation the attack has all gone round the park. The obvious move would be to bring Andrew Tye into the side to combat that but Tom Curran belted a 50 that didn’t matter in the last game and it would be harsh to drop him off the back of that. Perhaps Steve Smith needs to manage his options a little better.
Special Offer
Sign up for an account on the Betfair Exchange and get a free £20 risk free bet to use on the IPL! Click the image below to bet. 18+ T&Cs apply. New accounts only. Gamble Aware.
New customers only, bet up to £20 on the Exchange and if your first bet loses, we’ll refund you £20 in Cash. Bet must be placed in first 7 days of account opening. Click the above image to bet. T&Cs apply. Payment restrictions apply.
Key Men
AB de Villiers showed us what the world of cricket missed so much through lockdown in the last match. We know from the past that when he catches fire he is perfectly capable of maintaining his form for a while so he could be a key man for the Royals here, especially with Virat Kohli looking out of form.
Jos Buttler has offered up a couple of cameos so far in the tournament but he hasn’t gone on with them and turned them into the sort of scores he can put together. He is up against a pretty average bowling attack here and now would be a great time for him to light up the competition.
Betting
I’m getting the rough end of the tosses and super overs at the minute in this tournament so I don’t really want to get involved in the match betting here. To be honest I wouldn’t be rushing to get stuck into the winner here given that both sides have been going round the park with the ball in hand. This might actually be one of those rare birds that a team chasing actually wins the game given how badly both are bowling, but that remains to be seen.
As it happens I don’t need to get involved in the match betting because the 10.5 sixes line is perfectly attractive enough to reel me in for a bet. I’ve made it pretty clear throughout this preview that these teams are getting hit frequently and if you look down the list of players capable of hitting here it is long, deep and packed with power. We’re talking Jos Buttler, Aaron Finch, AB de Villiers, Robin Uthappa, Sanju Samson and Virat Kohli while the likes of Tom Curran and Jofra Archer are hitting sixes for fun. This is probably the hardest ground to hit them on of the three but this line is not high enough to combat that here. I’m on the over.
Tips
WON – Back Over 10.5 sixes for a 4/10 stake at 1.73 with BetVictor
Back it here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2020
