The Indian Premier League remains in Chennai on Wednesday when two sides who had different outcomes in their opening match meet as the Sunrisers Hyderabad go up against the powerhouse of Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Bangalore won their opening match of the season when they touched off the Mumbai Indians while the Sunrisers were beaten by the Kolkata Knight Riders in a game where we saw a pretty slack performance from the Orange Army.
Sunrisers Hyderabad
It was a very alien performance that the Sunrisers Hyderabad put in during their first match of the season. We are used to them dominating with the ball in hand but they couldn’t set a platform with the ball and ended up going round the park deeper in the innings. All eyes will be on those bowlers to see if that was a one-off or whether their attack isn’t actually going to be as strong this season as it has been in previous ones.
The other thing we saw from the Sunrisers was a sloppy batting performance. There was one partnership in there but in truth it was a batting display which never really got going. The big concern on that side of the ball was that Dave Warner looked rusty and if you think back to England last summer after he hadn’t played for a while, it took an age for him to start timing the ball. He is the Sunrisers’ captain so he isn’t likely to be dropped so it is essential that he finds form quickly.
Royal Challengers Bangalore
When you consider they were taking on the defending champions in their opening match, the Royal Challengers Bangalore will be delighted to have got their season going with a win. You couldn’t call it a flawless performance because they came very close to throwing a strong winning position away late on, but you don’t beat the Mumbai Indians without a few scares along the way so we shouldn’t really hold that against them.
We saw some positives and negatives for the Royal Challengers in that opening game. They are a team who use analysts strongly and therefore the signing of Glenn Maxwell immediately looks a good one as they were one of the worst teams for scoring rates in the middle overs last season. Moving Virat Kohli up to control the innings is a huge help too. The negative is that Yuzvendra Chahal looks completely devoid of confidence and Bangalore could do with hi finding it quickly.
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Key Men
Jonny Bairstow has been in excellent form in India in the last few weeks. He was the player of the series in the T20s between India and England and went well in one of the ODIs as well and he added a season opening 50 to his list of innings against Kolkata on Sunday. Sunrisers should be pushing him back to the top of the order but wherever he bats he’ll be the key man for the Sunrisers.
Glenn Maxwell will be a huge factor in this match for Royal Challengers Bangalore. As I intimated above he has been signed to sort out their middle over deficiencies and had an immediate effect in the season opener. If he can get after Rashid Khan and get him out of the attack he’ll go a long way to putting Bangalore in control of the match.
Betting
I’m going to give the Sunrisers Hyderabad another chance here. I don’t believe that they are going to bowl as badly again here for a couple of reasons, primarily that they aren’t running into a side who are going to have the same gung-ho intent that Kolkata are embarking on. The other reason why I’m going to try the Sunrisers again is I can’t believe they are going to get the order of their batting so wrong again and if they get Bairstow up the order and someone like Riyan Garg in for Wriddhiman Saha there will be a better balance to their innings.
Bangalore played well in the opening game but a lot went their way. They got fortunate when Chris Lynn sold Rohit Sharma down the river and then Harshal Patel took five wickets late on and I’m not convinced that is going to happen again too often. The rest of the bowlers looked a little unsuited to the Chennai pitches and as they dry up, and we saw evidence of that on Tuesday when Rahul Chahar was getting plenty of turn, the Sunrisers’ spin and canny medium pacers will come right into play. At odds against they are the bet here.
Tips
Back Sunrisers Hyderabad to beat Royal Challengers Bangalore for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Betfair
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