There are two double header days of action left in the regular Indian Premier League season with the first of those coming on Thursday when first up the IPL 2021 league phase ends for the Chennai Super Kings and the Punjab Kings.
In all reality this is a dead rubber although technically the Super Kings need to win to secure second spot, but it would take something bordering a miracle for them to lose that now. There is a chance the Punjab Kings can finish fourth but the mathematics involved would get Carol Vorderman’s brain in overdrive!
Chennai Super Kings
The Chennai Super Kings have been assured of their playoff spot for a while now but they haven’t completely sewn up second spot and the two shots at a place in the final that would bring them. Technically winning here will sew up second spot, although it is likely they have done enough to earn that anyway, however a victory in this match will just flatten out a little bump in their form. If they lose here that would be three defeats in succession and no team wants to go into the finals in that position.
Other than the fact they are going to meet in the first qualifier on Sunday, there was no shame in losing to the Delhi Capitals last time out. More of a concern would be how they were unable to defend 190 against the Rajasthan Royals, who were seemingly hopeless either side of that. Those two defeats should just act as a reminder for the Super Kings that no matter how well they have done this season, and they have done well, that they still need complete performances to win matches.
Punjab Kings
The Punjab Kings have won two of their last four matches and have been competitive in the two they have been beaten in but in reality it is looking like it will be too little too late for them. The minute they failed to get over the line in the final over against the Rajasthan Royals in their first game after the restart you could just tell that was going to come back to haunt them. Had they won that match things would have been much easier for them here. As it is they need to win and win incredibly big, then hope just as much.
The only thing the Kings can control is that they win and do so by a sizeable margin and in order to do that their middle order is going to need to come to the party. It is a pretty crazy statistics that nearly half of the runs scored by the Punjab Kings this term have come via their opening batsmen. The last thing they need now is for that partnership to be broken early. They also need their bowlers to restrict Chennai to something they can get stuck into.
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Key Men
Ravindra Jadeja could take this match away from the Punjab Kings in two ways. He could take wickets in the middle overs which denies them the chance to propel a total, or he could clobber a few runs with the bat at the back end of the innings and push the Chennai total out of reach.
Clearly if the Punjab Kings are going to win this match by the margin they need to then they need a big hitter to come off. Nicholas Pooran would appear to be that man on paper. He is the one man in this side who could play a cameo scoring above 200 strike rate. That needs to happen here.
Betting
I don’t really want to bet on the outcome of this match. One team has lost their last two matches and the other needs to win by a landslide. Given the margin that Punjab Kings have to win by you would think they will play into the hands of the Chennai Super Kings but the Rajasthan Royals showed last week that when you get on a roll against the men in yellow you can soon get them flustered and who knows what will happen from there.
One thing we do know is the Punjab Kings have to throw caution to the wind in this match which makes me think the 5.5 sixes for them to hit is a fairly low line. They have played two matches in Dubai, posting 183/4 in the first which included seven sixes, and 168/5 where they clobbered nine sixes so they are a batting unit that have gone very well here when they haven’t had the intention they are going to have here. The league situation tells me they are going to be aiming to hit a lot more than 5.5 sixes so I’ll take the over that they manage it.
Tips
Back Punjab Kings – Over 5.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with BetVictor
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