Sunrisers Hyderabad v Delhi Capitals IPL Tips: Delhi batters to struggle again

• Last chance saloon for both sides

• Delhi batsmen struggling badly

• Klaasen good value for top bat

Sunrisers Hyderabad v Delhi Capitals
Monday, 15:00 BST
Live on Sky Sports Cricket

As things stand, these two fill the bottom two places, albeit with a game in hand on KKR. Although not mathematically out of the race for the play-offs, both require a remarkable turnaround. 16 points is a minimum target. That means Delhi need seven wins from eight matches; Sunrisers six from eight.

Sunrisers revival dashed by two losses

The hosts come in off two very disappointing defeats to Mumbai and Chennai, killing the momentum gathered once their overseas contingent arrived in full. The latter restricted Sunrisers to a paltry 134 batting first. Meanwhile, Delhi finally opened their account against fellow strugglers Kolkata.

Is there any hope for either? Well, I do still believe Sunrisers have the squad to contend. Harry Brook has only performed at his best in one match. Likewise contributions from Tripathi, Markram and Klaasen have been mixed. I suspect in a match or two, they will put it all together.

Delhi's position seems worse. Only two batsmen - David Warner and Manish Pandey - have scored 100 runs and they both bat too slow. Despite plenty of pedigree, the rest just haven't performed.

No toss bias at Hyderabad

The Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium is a rare example nowadays in offering no obvious bias to defending or chasing sides. Over the last five years, they are tied 10-10.

This year's three matches have yielded higher runs than usual, with two First Innings Runs totals above 190. Over the longer sample, fewer than half reached 170 and half were sub-160.

One would expect scores to come down as the tournament progresses, pitches slow up and are used for a second or third time. That point of the tournament is always hard to predict, but we aren't far away. Given that neither side has been thriving with the bat, it might pay to have a speculative lay of the 160 or more line. Based on what we've seen, the odds should be around 1.4.

Paltry sixes return from Delhi

Sixes are also lower than average here. 40% of matches produce 15 or more maximums, and 40% produce ten or fewer. Sunrisers lead on this count 28-15. Delhi's count reads particularly poorly when considering that Axar Patel was responsible for nine of their 15.

For that reason rather than a strong view about the match result, let's take 7/5 about Sunrisers hitting most sixes and winning the match.

Onto the Top Batsman markets, Harry Brook and David Warner are today's #OddsBoosts, enhanced to 7/2 and 11/4 respectively. Note that Warner won this market in four out of six matches. That suggests the odds are big value, but equally that he's due a losing run.

Finally a couple of bets on Sunrisers' overseas players who may or may not make the starting line-up. Heinrich Klaasen has been batting at five. If he does so again, 9/1 to top-score is a cracking price. He was in superb, powerful form prior to the IPL and remains a player to keep onside in white ball cricket.

Fazalhaq Farooqi is another player who has delivered for bettors, bowling at the death in a range of leagues and competitions, for Afghanistan or domestic sides. He is struggling to get a place in this side but their alternative death bowling options haven't really been firing so perhaps this is the day. Take 7/2 about the Afghan.

*Follow Paul on Twitter @paulmotty