IPL Betting: Mumbai Indians v Rajasthan Royals

Find Me A 100 Winner / Andrew Hughes / 13 May 2009 / Leave a Comment

With bad news on the Shane front for the Royals - Watson won't be playing in the IPL this year and Warne is likely to miss the match with a hamstring injury - the in-form Mumbai Indians should prove to be the better side, says Andrew Hughes.

Team News

Rajasthan's misfortune continues with the news that captain and talisman Shane Warne could miss this game with a hamstring problem. Graeme Smith is likely to deputise. Mumbai may decide to persist with the experiment of promoting Dwayne Bravo up the order, but their team selection will hinge around the fitness of Zaheer Khan.

Conditions

Runs are harder to come by at Kingsmead under the lights, the average score in a day night game here this IPL being 146. There is invariably something on offer for the swing bowlers.

Match Odds

Both teams need to win at least two of their remaining games to make the semis and with tricky ties against Delhi and Chennai to come, Mumbai will be desperate to pick up two points against a brave but faltering Rajasthan. That the Royals are still in contention despite some atrocious batting and the loss of both of their promising young Indian bowlers, is testament to the genius of Warne. But their late season hopes were pinned on Shane Watson who will not be joining them after all after concerns over a long-term groin injury.

With Warne injured, they could finally give up the ghost here. By contrast, Mumbai have finally got their show back on the road with good wins against Deccan and Punjab and are deserved favourites at [1.76] with Rajasthan as long as [2.22].

Top Batsman

We can't be sure that Bravo will open again and with Sanath Jayasuriya looking hit and miss and Sachin Tendulkar tending to play an anchor role, the safe bet for Mumbai top batsman is J P Duminy at around [5.0] For Rajasthan, you can take your pick of a number of batsmen, with Smith likely to be popular but Swapnil Asnodkar is still being underrated and is worth backing at [6.0] or higher.

Featured Market

Sixes are rarer in day night games here, with the average total of maximums just over 7, compared to 11 for day games. So it could pay to back 'Under 9' in the total sixes market.