The second part of the double header in the Major League Cricket competition comes from Dallas on Sunday night as the tournament continues for the Texas Super Kings and the defending champions MI New York.
These two sides go into the double header in second and third in the table and whoever comes out on top will be nicely placed to move into the playoffs. The loser won’t be out of contention but will have some work to do.
Texas Super Kings
It has been a bit of everything for the Texas Super Kings as they go into this match with a win, two washouts and a defeat from their four matches. They only have three matches left though so a defeat here could leave them vulnerable to the chasing pack so they will be keen to get the win in this match. If they can win here, while they won’t book their spot in the playoffs, you would imagine one more win would get them in so it would give them some wiggle room.
The Texas Super Kings didn’t bat particularly well in their opening match. Whether that was the conditions on show or needing a run out to get up to speed only they will really know but in their last two matches they have caught fire with the bat and if they keep up that batting intensity this could be a strong season for them. They have a bowling unit which has plenty of variety in it and bowlers who are hard to get away and that is never a bad thing.
MI New York
I would imagine this has been a frustrating period for the MI New York side. They got off to the perfect start in the tournament when they won the opening match of the tournament. Since then the rain has followed them around a little. They were probably going to lose their second game before the rain arrived and then they watched on while a load more rain fell on Friday, so New York are probably itching to get back out onto the park.
When you look down this New York line up it is hard to see a weakness in it. I guess that there is an argument that their top three could be exposed to a moving ball which isn’t ideal, although it won’t make much difference if the likes of Nicholas Pooran or Tim David start firing. Where there is no weakness in this New York side is with the ball. They have a very strong bowling unit with wickets with the new ball and in the middle overs.
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Key Players
Faf du Plessis is rolling back the years with the bat at the minute. He scored a century in an earlier match in the tournament and led Texas Super Kings out of the blocks in the second one and his side will be hoping for another solid knock from him here.
Nicholas Pooran might just be the best T20 batter in the world right now and after catching fire in the opening games for MI New York, the champions will be hoping that the lengthy amount of time without a match hasn’t cooled him off at all.
Betting
The Texas Super Kings might just have drifted to a big enough price to be value in this match. The first thing that I like about them is that they have been more active in the tournament and as they have played the extra match this probably means more to them than it might do to the MI New York side. Texas have a few ways of winning this match. If they catch fire at the top of the innings they could do some real damage to an attack which gets weaker outside of Rashid Khan the longer the overs go on.
The other way that they can win this is bowl well with the new ball, which Naveen-ul-Haq in particular has been doing for a while now, and getting some scoreboard pressure on Nicholas Pooran and Tim David, who carry way too much importance in this batting unit for New York for my liking. Texas will be strengthened by Ottneil Baartman arriving as an injury replacement and they look a better balanced team to me. I’ll take yellow to beat blue in this one.
Tips
Back Texas Super Kings to beat MI New York for a 3/10 stake at 2.25 with Betfred
