It is do or die time for two teams in the Major League Cricket season on Wednesday night as the playoffs begin when the Texas Super Kings go up against the defending champions MI New York in the Eliminator in Dallas.
Texas Super Kings have been in the top four for most of the season but in effect the MI New York have already played one knockout match as they had to win their last regular campaign game in order to be here.
Texas Super Kings
The Texas Super Kings ended the first phase of the tournament with three wins from the five matches that they were able to complete and there is a chance that they would have had a fourth had the rain not interrupted another game when it did so they should be feeling pretty good about their chances from here on in, although they last played on Tuesday night in a match they took much more seriously than I expected them to and it will be interesting to see if that comes back to bite them given the short turnaround.
The Super Kings have been very good with the bat this season. They have scored 160 or more in the majority of their matches and have been able to wield away with the ball with the knowledge that they have decent scores on the board. The longer the tournament has gone on the better their bowling has looked as the spinners have started to come more to the fore. You would imagine that is only going to be even more the case the longer they remain in the competition.
MI New York
The title defence of MI New York hasn’t gone how they would have envisaged it so far I would imagine but faced with having to win their final league game by a sufficient margin in order to extend their campaign into this Eliminator, they were able to come good when it mattered and now they know they are three wins away from keeping hold of the trophy for a second season in succession. They should take a lot of confidence from that last win.
The big problem that the MI New York side could continue to have is that their batting just seems to have no confidence in it. Although they got the job done last time out there were a few sketchy moments, albeit there were mitigating circumstances in that they weren’t just trying to chase down a score to stay in the competition but do it in a certain amount of time in order to remain alive. That batting does need come up with the goods if they are going to successfully defend this title.
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Key Players
Ottniel Baartman finally made his Texas Super Kings debut on Tuesday night and he came up with 3/20 to show that he is more than good enough to be a force at this level. If he can deliver a similar spell the Super Kings will be on track.
Kieron Pollard showed that he isn’t done as a force at this level in the do or die last match that the MI New York played and if he can deliver another big innings and maybe even help with the bowling for a couple of overs he could be a key man.
Betting
I’m a little surprised that we can get a sixes line of just 12.5 for this match when you consider that there are some big hitters on show here. The pitch that we have been playing on for the last couple of days have had first innings scores in the 170 range and we certainly aren’t on a big ground or anything like that. If Nicholas Pooran or Kieron Pollard fire up then they could easily take a big chunk of this target out of the equation.
You would imagine that the Texas Super Kings are going to offer something to it as well though. They hit nine sixes here on Tuesday night and that was having lost a wicket to the first ball of the match so there is more to come from them. MI New York have the likes of Dewald Brevis, Heath Richards, Romario Shepherd and Rashid Khan who can all hit a long ball so this line feels a touch on the low side to me. I don’t think either of these teams will die wondering so I like the over here.
Tips
Back Over 12.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with William Hill
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