Find Me A 100 Winner / Mandeep / 17 May 2009 /

Despite their poor fortunes during this tournament, Kolkata Knight Riders will be looking to end their season on a high. Meanwhile, Chennai will be looking to continue their good form and enhance their credentials for that elusive first title, writes Mandeep Dhanoa.

Team News

All the Chennai big guns will be available and, unlike numerous other teams, they have chosen to experiment with too many different players and batting line-ups. Parthiv Patel may well be dropped for Murali Vijay, or Subramaniam Badrinath could be given another chance as opener. Hayden and Muralitharan will continue to lead the charge, whilst Manpreet Gony may be given a game.

The Kolkata Knight Riders have been boosted by David Hussey returning from Australian duty and showing his teammates what they have been missing. The promising Bangladeshi fast bowler Mashrafe Mortaza will continue to play, whilst Brad Hodge should continue to push up the IPL run scorer charts.

Venue, pitch and conditions

Supersport Park, Centurion will play host to this fixture. The ground is famous for its grassy banks, relaxed atmosphere and great player facilities. The pitch is traditionally quick and takes little spin. With the ball coming onto the bat nicely, this should be a relative run fest.

The venue has seen many teams post large scores of 170+, and numerous batsmen including Brendan McCullum and Matthew Hayden from these two teams who have scored over 80 runs.

The boundaries are small, and DLF Maximums (that means sixes to you and me!) should be at a maximum.

Muralitharan will turn the ball as usual, but then again he could turn the ball on glass. This pitch is ideal for batting, and the bowlers are in for a hammering!

Match Odds

The current price to back the obvious favourites Chennai is [1.6]. This may be a tad short, as the gulf that existed between the two teams has descreased thanks to the arrival of David Hussey. His bowling is handy to say the least, and his batting has been immense and destructive. He has also shown good temperament under pressure. Kolkata now have a more formidable batting order with the likes of Hussey, Hodge continuing to perform, and McCullum finally recapturing some of the highs of last season. However, I fully expect Chennai to have too much ability throughout the team, and in Hayden, a reliable aggressive match winner.

Top Batsman

As it stands currently, Matthew Hayden has scored 546 runs in this tournament with an average of 54.60, at a strike rate of 145.21. He is top of the runscorer charts, and has more than 150 runs more than his nearest rival (who incidentally is his former partner in opening crime Adam Gilchrist).

He also scored his highest score of this tournament of 89 at Centurion. Hayden is also second on the Most Tournament Sixes list. He has also been in the top two run scorers for his team in his last four innings. In other words, it is difficult to back anyone else.

Featured Market

Due to the nature of the pitch and the size of the ground, sixes should be easier to score here than at other grounds. With the number of six hitters in each team (i.e. Hayden, Dhoni, Raina, Oram, McCullum, Hodge, Hussey etc) the Total Sixes market is the one to watch. Usually prices at around [6.0], the runner 14 and Over is worth a back at around that price.

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