IPL Betting: Chennai Super Kings v Rajasthan Royals

Find Me A 100 Winner / Andrew Hughes / 08 May 2009 / Leave a Comment

Andrew Hughes provides the lowdow as the IPL's form teams go head to head...

Team News

With both sides in a rich vein of form, I wouldn't expect too many changes. Chennai may consider dropping Manapreet Gony again after a horror show with the ball on Thursday. Rajasthan have finally found a batting line up that works and will probably be unchanged.

Conditions

There doesn't seem to be much evidence that batting second in day/night games here is a problem, indeed in the second ever Twenty20 game here back in 2007, Cape Cobras successfully chased down 187 batting under lights.

Match Odds

These two met nine days ago and the result on that occasion was a resounding win for Chennai, thanks largely to Suresh Raina's 98 which set up a total of 164 that Rajasthan's hit and miss batting line up was never going to overhaul. Since that game, both teams have been undefeated and find themselves perched at the top of the table. Rajasthan's success is the more remarkable and the ability of Shane Warne and his coaching team to get the best out of unheralded youngsters is extraordinary. Naman Ojha and Abishek Raut are the latest Indian players to feel the Warne effect and with Graeme Smith back in form and Lee Carseldine steadying the batting order, Rajasthan have looked a lot more solid. Chennai are likely to be favourites, around the [1.7] mark, but anything above [2.1] for Rajasthan would represent real value.

Top Batsman

For Chennai, you can take your pick of Matthew Hayden and Raina, though Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been available at tempting prices for a while now and would be interesting at [6.0] or higher. The market for Rajasthan top bat is much more open and it could pay to take a chance on the youngster Ojha who has made such an impact. He is worth backing at potentially rewarding odds.

Featured Market

Rajasthan's new opening pair of Smith and Ojha look promising and it could be worth backing them to provide the highest opening partnership at more than [2.0].