The second match of the double header in the Indian Premier League on Saturday sees the competition return to Pune for the latest outing of the new franchise Gujarat Titans. They take on the Delhi Capitals.
Both these teams won their opening match of the campaign so one of them is going to have two wins from two to their name and have themselves set up nicely for the remainder of the season. The other will still be in good shape so we should be in for a good game of cricket here.
Gujarat Titans
The Gujarat Titans had their opening match won inside the first four or five overs as it turned out and it will be interesting to see if that is going to be a theme of theirs or whether they just happened to be inspired with the ball. From what we have seen in the competition so far the bowlers are going to struggle in the initial part of the tournament so I would want to see more from them with the bat here to be sure they can compete in the event.
Their top order failed them in the opening match but David Miller and Rahul Tewatia got together and got them over the line. They will certainly need their better players higher up to come to the party at some stage in the competition and they earlier they can get them into form the better. It has to be said though that man for man their top five doesn’t look like it is as strong as some in the competition which might put pressure on them with the ball.
Delhi Capitals
It was much the same for the Delhi Capitals in their opening match too. They were going nowhere with the bat until Axar Patel came in deep in the order and guided them to victory but the positive for the Capitals is that they managed to restrict a decent Mumbai Indians side to a score which they were able to chase even if they made harder work of the run chase than they would have wanted. Much was made of the struggles Mumbai have early on in their seasons but Delhi still had to put them away.
The Capitals are one of a few sides who are going to improve naturally as the season goes on when international players join up with the team. Mustafizur Rahman is one of those and he will be available for this match but it is with the bat where they could do with one or two reinforcements, especially right at the top of the order. The Capitals have the middle and lower order covered as we saw in that opening match.
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Key Players
Mohammad Shami ripped the heart out of the Lucknow Super Giants in the first game for the Gujarat Titans and if he can do something similar here then he will have the Delhi Capitals engine room under pressure which is the perfect situation.
Axar Patel showed all his class with the bat in the first game. We didn’t see the best of him with the ball but against a side full of players who aren’t the most attacking batters against spin his four overs could be crucial for Delhi here.
Betting
We saw in the opening match on this ground that the boundaries here are extremely accessible. While they were able to just throw the bat at everything at the time, the Sunrisers Hyderabad were 37-5 and still hit six sixes. Both these teams showcased their hitting talent down the order in their first matches so if their top orders come to the party then we should get plenty of sixes in this match. This is the late game so the dew is going to make life awkward for the bowlers too.
We’ll find out here whether that new ball spell from Shami was a fluke in the first game or he can back it up but even if he does Delhi have plenty of batting deep down their order. Gujarat don’t lack for hitters either as we saw when they won their opening match so I am expecting to see a 15.5 sixes line covered. This is only the second match on this ground so we don’t need to worry about the wickets deteriorating or anything like that. We saw 20 sixes in the first game here with the chasing side 37-5. I expect at least 16 more here.
Tips
Back Over 15.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with BetVictor
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