IPL Betting: Deccan Chargers v Rajasthan Royals

Find Me A 100 Winner / Andrew Hughes / 01 May 2009 / Leave a Comment

Yusuf Pathan holds the key to this game, says Andrew Hughes. If he's firing, Rajasthan might pull off an upset win.

Team News
Deccan were derailed by Delhi on Thursday, but having finally bitten the bullet and dropped VVS Laxman, it is unlikely the Chargers will make any changes for this. It is hard to predict what the Rajasthan Royals will try next, their batting line-up having been reshuffled several times already. Young fast bowling sensation Kamran Khan may be a doubt, having picked up an ankle injury in Thursday's game.

Conditions
Port Elizabeth is a Jekyll and Hyde of a ground; fast and true in good weather but offering prodigious swing when the clouds gather or the lights come on. With this being an afternoon fixture and the forecast set fair, we can probably expect scores more like the 179 that Chennai racked up here, rather than the sub-100 scores for which Bangalore and Kolkata were skittled out earlier in the tournament.

Match Odds
Deccan's defeat on Thursday was due mainly to a rare double failure from Herschelle Gibbs and Adam Gilchrist but generally they have been a model of consistency with the Indian players supporting the established stars admirably. Rajasthan have fought hard, with Shane Warne getting every ounce of talent from his limited squad. But though they can be electric in the field, their batting is simply not good enough to make them competitive. It would take something out of the ordinary for the Royals to win this, which is why they are likely to be as high as [2.3] for victory, with Gilchrist's men around the [1.6] mark.

Top Batsman
If you can get anything around [5.0] or higher for Yusuf Pathan to finish top Rajasthan bat, you should take it as frankly he IS the Royals batting line-up. For Deccan, it would still pay to concentrate on the two openers and you could justifiably back either of them at [3.5] or higher.

Featured Market
These are two sharp fielding sides and we should expect plenty of stump-shying. It is worth backing 'Over 1.5' in the Total Match Run Outs market if you can get higher than [2.0].