Find Me A 100 Winner / Mandeep / 19 April 2009 /

The Chennai Super Kings will be looking to get a crucial first win under their belt on Monday while Bangalore will hope to improve their batting and continue the superb fielding and bowling displayed in their first match.

Team News

Neither team will make many changes from their first matches. Chennai are likely to bring in Albie Morkel if available. Their batting line up should include Hayden, Raina, Flintoff and Dhoni. Murali and Ntini are both vying for call-ups.

Bangalore will be looking to strengthen their batting. Kallis, van der Merwe, and Mark Boucher will all be pushing for starts. They will be hesitant to make too many changes to the bowling line up that performed so admirably against the reigning IPL champions on Saturday.

Venue, pitch and conditions

Only one international Twenty20 has been played at St George's Park, Port Elizabeth - a reduced overs match between South Africa and the West Indies where South Africa struggled to post 58 off 13 overs, which the Windies chased down with some difficulty in 10.

In the domestic South African Twenty series, the targets set have been less than you would expect at other grounds. A relatively low scoring game is to be expected.

With rain expected on Monday, the toss will be vital. With clouds in the line and the rain putting some life into the wicket, it would be advantageous to avoid batting second in the day night game as batting under lights has traditionally been difficult.

Match Odds

Currently the Match Odds market is [1.82] on Chennai, as they are a fancied team in this season's tournament. The toss and weather will be crucial, and as soon as the result is known, I fully expect the team batting first to shorten considerably. I would recommend placing a bet on the team batting first immediately after the toss.

Top Batsman

These markets will be available once the line ups are known. The obvious choice for the Chennai Super Kings is Matthew Hayden. He looked in fine form spanking some very useful Mumbai bowlers before being well caught by Zaheer Khan off Jayasuriya's slow bowling. Hayden, like most batsman, has found scoring off the spinners difficult. Luckliy, few teams bowl spin in the first six overs and Hayden is well placed to capitalise on the fielding restrictions. With a superb average in this format of the game, it is difficult to see past this giant of the game as Top Chennai Batsman.

Identifying the Top Batsman for the Bangalore Royal Challengers is not so easy. Rahul Dravid broke the mould in top scoring with 66 off 48 balls in his last outing against Rajasthan. It goes to show that it is not just the big hitters who you should keep an eye on. Tendulkar and Dravid top scored for their teams on Saturday by initially playing an anchor role, and then accelerating later in their innings. However, Pietersen looked in decent touch, and will be buoyed by his team's victory, having suffered so much embarrassment with England in recent times.

Featured Market

The Most Sixes market is often overlooked. Chennai, with the likes of Hayden, Dhoni, Flintoff, Oram, A. Morkel and Raina, will look to clear the boundary regularly. Despite the names of Ryder, Uthappa, Taylor and Pietersen, a poor batting show last time out should mean Bangalore are more reluctant to give their wicket away. On the same pitch on Saturday, Chennai hit six sixes in their innings, whilst Bangalore hit a paltry two. Chennai are a back in this market at around [1.6].

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