Indian Premier League - IPL / Tobias Gourlay / 15 April 2010 /

Tobias Gourlay finds the Deccan Chargers at one with themselves ahead of their trip to play Kings XI Punjab in Dharamsala.

Venue & Conditions

For 50 years, Dharamsala in northern India has been home to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. For the next three days it's also home to the much less serene IPL 2010. Four thousand feet above sea level, the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium doesn't host many big games, but has had floodlights installed specially for the Kings XI Punjab's matches with the Deccan Chargers and the Chennai Super Kings and an increased capacity of 20,000.

Team News

With a couple of rounds to go, Punjab are bottom of the points table. Qualification is out of their hands, but, if they win their matches, improve their net run rate and results elsewhere are favourable, they can still get to the semi-finals.

Brett Lee's broken thumb jeopardises his participation at the T20 World Cup, but need not be regarded as a blow for the team - the former fast bowler had been going for 10 an over and was without a wicket in four matches. The Kings XI's foreign batting stars, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, and their native bowling stars, Irfan Pathan, Piyush Chawla, Ramesh Powar, must maintain recent performance improvements if the team is to achieve an unlikely place in the last four.

Above Punjab, there's a pack of four teams on 12 points. Deccan are among them, but hold the worst net run rate, so will be chasing wins especially hard in each of their last two group-stage games. They are unlikely to make too many changes for this match, so Herschelle Gibbs will probably get another go at the top of the order with Adam Gilchrist. That will make the [1.9] about Deccan to have the Highest Six Over Total very inviting, if you think they can both last that long.

Match Odds

They are in the wrong half of the table as it stands, but Punjab ([2.28]) and Deccan are both in good form. After winning only one of their first eight matches, the former have won three of their last four, easily passing opposition totals of 200, 154 and 111. Deccan ([1.76]) are on a winning streak of three and will go off as favourites to beat their hosts in Friday's only match. The pitch doesn't have a form guide, but Punjab's bowlers are unlikely to get as much help as they did on a slow turner in Delhi on Sunday and the resurgent reigning champions might easily blow them away.

Top Batsman

One of Punjab's Sri Lankans has won the team's Top Batsman market in each of the last five games. Sangakkara and Jayawardene duly share favouritism at [4.0] for this game. Last season's captain, Yuvraj Singh ([5.3]), was recently seen not celebrating the team's win over Mumbai. Without a 50 this year anyway, he's not to be trusted.

A golden duck last time out and only one 50 in 12 innings, but Gilchrist ([4.0]) is immovable at the head of the Top Deccan Batsman market, which has been won twice each by TL Suman ([7.0]) and Rohit Sharma ([5.0]) recently. Andrew Symonds ([5.0]) has come into some good form, but, coming in at No. 5, has been left not out in two of the Chargers' last three matches.

The head-to-head markets might be the best way of capitalising on your favourite batsmen. For example, Jayawardene -0.5 runs will be around evens to beat Gilchrist and Symonds -0.5 runs will be a similar price to outdo Yuvraj.

Most Sixes

Gilchrist (15 in the tournament so far), Gibbs (9), Suman (9), Sharma (11), Symonds (13). All of Deccan's likely top five are regular six-hitters. Kings XI have only Yuvraj and Irfan Pathan, who are unreliable (Pathan might open the batting, but he might equally come in at No. 5 or No. 6). Deccan are [1.72] to hit Most Sixes.

Trivia

Ramesh Powar has previous first-class experience of Dharamsala. He played for an Indian Board's President XI in a three-day warm-up game ahead of Pakistan's 2004-05 tour of India. Bad weather forced a draw, but not before the off-spinner had sent down four overs for 22 runs. A repeat of those figures in this radically different format would be most impressive.

Tobias Gourlay Says: Back Deccan Chargers at [1.76] to beat King's XI Punjab

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