IPL Betting: Deccan Chargers v Mumbai Indians

General / Andrew Hughes / 24 April 2009 / Leave a Comment

One team will lose its unbeaten record as two of the IPL's best clash. Andrew Hughes previews the action...

Team News

With both teams undefeated, neither is likely to want to tamper much with a winning formula. For Deccan, all of the overseas players have been contributing well and that means it is unlikely that we will see Chamara Silva or Chaminda Vaas, though Venugopal Rao may be vulnerable. Mumbai may replace medium pacer Rohan Raje but that is likely to be their only change, barring any last-minute injury problems.

Conditions

Aside from a little early movement with the Kookaburra ball, there was nothing much for the bowlers at Kingsmead on Thursday, the square having dried out considerably since the first games here and ball came nicely onto bat. With the short boundary on one side, scores of 170+ look to be about par.

Match Odds

These two, along with Delhi, are looking like the teams to beat so this is a fascinating battle. Both have classy batting line-ups, dangerous bowlers and are nippy in the field. When two teams are so closely matched, it can be worth simply backing the team at the longest odds. Certainly if you can get [2.0] about either of these, you should take it. 170 is a minimum on this surface and so you should be bearing that in mind when looking for in-running opportunities. Consider laying any team if they begin to fall behind the 8.5 run per over par score.

Top Bat

For Mumbai, Jayasuriya will enjoy the extra bounce on offer as he looks to unleash those aerial cuts and savage pulls. He should be backed at anything higher than [3.5]. Deccan's top three have all been in good touch, but I will side with Rohit Sharma, who put in a stylish and powerful display against Bangalore and has plenty more to come. Hopefully, we should be able to back him at [4.0] and higher.

Featured Market

The short boundary combined with the easy paced and even bounce of this Kingsmead track mean that we can back the '14 or more' option in the Total Sixes market with some optimism.

Andrew Hughes says: Back Jayasuriya to be top bat for Mumbai @ [3.5] or higher.