Punjab Kings v Kolkata Knight Riders IPL Tips: Load up on a KKR runfest

Punjab Kings v Kolkata Knight Riders
Tuesday 8 April, 15:00
TV: live on Sky Sports

Punjab Kings v Kolkata Knight Riders IPL team news

Punjab were won on the receiving end of a Sunrisers special with the bat. But it has to be said that failing to defend 245 suggests strongly they don't lift the title this year. Fears on these pages have been expressed previously about their leaky bowling. They are now in jeopardy of not reaching the top four.

There's nowt they can do to improve that, although it might be helpful if Yuz Chahal found some form. He is costing them 11 an over and has only two wickets. One of Praveen Dubey or Harpreet Singh should be tried perhaps as another spin option.

Possible Punjab XI: Arya (Arshdeep sub), Prab Singh, Iyer, Stoinis, Wadhera, Maxwell, Shahshank, Shedge, Jansen, Harpreet, Ferguson 

KKR hammered a horrible Chennai team last time out to maintain a 50% record so far. They are not a vintage outfit by any means but have the tools to get the points against limited outfits. Probably their main strength is having a settled side with each player knowing his role. 

Well, apart from Moeen Ali who appears to be used as some sort of floating all-rounder. If they feel Moeen is a luxury Spencer Johnson could come back into the picture. 

Probable KKR XI: De Kock, Narine, Rahane, Venkatesh, Iyer, Russell, Ramandeep, Moeen, Harshit, Arora, Varun (Raghuvanshi sub)

Punjab Kings v Kolkata Knight Riders IPL pitch report

It does look as those Mullanpur is a flat one. Rajasthan posted 205 and then Punjab 219 against Chennai. What was interesting about those matches that the scores were defended. That increased the bias for the defender from the total T20 matches played (31) at the ground.

Sportsbook offer both teams total runs markets and we'd like to go long of both given the form guide. Punjab at 185.5 and KKR at 182.5. We would expect a rise when the toss is made. Likewise on a 20-over par line. It should be in the 190s. With Punjab leaking at 10.7 an over, the overs KKR at 5/61.84 may be the smartest choice because we would still expect to be in play a chase. 

Punjab Kings v Kolkata Knight Riders IPL match prediction 

Punjab are 1.8810/11 favourites with KKR 2.1211/10 outsiders. This continues the theme of the tournament so far with KKR being unpopular in the markets. Another theme is to understand why that is. They're far more competent than the prices have suggested.

At the very least this should be a choice affair, largely because KKR's tendency to implode with the bat may be reduced here because Punjab give team's a chance with the ball. Chuck in that toss bias for the team batting first we mentioned and KKR are a solid option. 

Punjab Kings v Kolkata Knight Riders IPL Exchange strategy

Simples. There should be a crash on the odds for the team batting first. But it's far more likely to be KKR because of the reliability, or rather unreliability, of that Punjab bowling line-up.

From the starting point of 2.1211/10, and we don't expect a shift if KKR bat first, we're looking for 1.654/6. Adding an extra 50% on the lay button from the original stake guarantees a profit. We may look for shorter in the first six of the reply, though.

Punjab Kings v Kolkata Knight Riders IPL player bets

We're in a state of confusion with our Marcus Stoinis top-bat strategy. He was batting at No 4 and we were backing him at 9/110.00 with a win record busting 20%. Now he's out to 10s having been demoted to No 7. The reason? Well, we guess that Punjab, with a rollicking start against SRH, wanted to go hell for leather so promoted faster bats. Then Stoinis smashed 34 from 11. Get him back up the order please.

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