Indian Premier League - IPL / Tobias Gourlay / 22 March 2010 /

Jacques Kallis has been the star of IPL 2010 so far, but somebody's ready to launch a right royal challenge to Bangalore's main man. Is it Suresh Raina and the Chennai Super Kings? Tobias Gourlay has the answer.

Venue and Conditions

Indian ground-naming philosophy is a focus of attention again as the M. Chinnaswamy (an administrator, not a player) Stadium hosts its third match of IPL 2010. Previously known as the Karnataka State Cricket Association Stadium, one wonders if there isn't an old Soviet apparatchik somewhere to give a refresher course in creative thinking.

Some of the batting at the Chinnaswamy has been quite creative, but not all of it. A week ago, King's XI Punjab batted first, made 202-3 and lost. On Thursday, the Rajasthan Royals' first-innings 92ao wasn't quite enough either.

Team News

The Bangalore Royal Challengers are on a winning streak of three and without injury problems, so are quite likely to be unchanged for this match. Like England, they rely on foreign stars - Jacques Kallis, Eoin Morgan, Mark Boucher and Dale Steyn - all of whom are fit are available.

The Chennai Super Kings have been without their usual talisman, MS Dhoni, for a couple of matches now, winning one and losing one (in a Super Over) under the captaincy of Suresh Raina. Dhoni's likely to miss this match and probably one more, while Justin Kemp has a side-strain. The middle-order has underperformed, but is unlikely to change. Most of the bowlers have underperformed too (Muttiah Muralitharan and Laxmipathy Balaji are honourably excepted) and perhaps Ravichandran Ashwin will be replaced by Shadab Jakati, the left-arm spinner who had a good 2009 tournament.

Match Odds

At the time of writing, the Royal Challengers are top of the table with three wins from their first four games and two from two at the M. Chinnaswamy, but they'll be knocked off their perch if Mumbai beat Kolkata on Monday afternoon. Jacques Kallis's batting and some excellent swing bowling, seasoned with just the odd bouncer, have got Bangalore where they are and go most of the way to explaining their [1.9] win price for this match. They're 3-2 up in the head-to-head series with the Super Kings, winning the most recent match - one of last season's semi-finals - thanks to solid batting performances from Manish Pandey and (you'll never guess) Rahul Dravid.

Let's not forget Anil Kumble though. The captain has bowled very economically to this point and together with his seamers - Dale Steyn, Praveen Kumar and the perennially underrated Vinay Kumar - is a good reason for believing that Bangalore deserve their status as favourites, especially because the Super Kings' bowling attack is unbalanced. Unbalanced in the sense that Muralitharan and Balaji are very good and the rest of them aren't.

Top Batsman

Twenty20's getting serious, so Jacque Kallis's getting serious about Twenty20. He's so committed to his IPL 2010 batting average that he doesn't even have one yet. His 20-over 65* at Eden Gardens left the ADHD generation groaning like its elders did at Sunil Gavaskar's 1975 World Cup go-slow, but a position at the top of the order and follow-up scores of 89*, 44* and 66* make the veteran ([3.05]) hard to oppose as Bangalore's top runscorer.

'Eoin' and 'Morgan' are the two most exciting buzzwords in English cricket at the moment. The Irishman's been used at number five to this point and won't get much of a go while Kallis keeps going, but he's the main reason why Any Other Batsman is second favourite at [5.2]. This previewer's liked the cut of Robin Uthappa's jib since he saw him win an ODI for India at the Oval a few years ago and likes it even more when it's got a price of [7.0] on it. Uthappa's batted at a healthy lick in the tournament so far and has appeared to be in good form when Kallis has given him a chance to show it.

Matthew Hayden will be Chennai's market-leader, but, Mongoose in hand, has not been as reliable as Kallis. In the absence of Dhoni, former India wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel has established himself as the Australian's opening partner. After creeping to the second-slowest fifty in IPL history last time out, it's not clear that 20 overs is enough for him to trouble Haydos in this market. Raina does not seem unduly burdened by captaincy and might be the best bet when the market forms.

Bangalore Opening Partnership

Kallis's opening partner, Manish Pandey, has been consistent too, albeit at a slightly lower level. He made a duck from number three in Bangalore's first match, but since then his personal scores of 38, 42* and 40 have been just as important as Kallis's in opening partnerships of 74, 93* and 85. As the market matures, you'll easily find odds-against on a fourth consecutive fifty partnership. If you prefer something shorter, you'll be able to back them to beat Chennai - for whom Hayden plus one other have so far managed 12, 16, 12 and 65 - in the Opening Partnership market at [1.7] or more.

Trivia

Matthew Hayden was the only player to score more than 500 runs in last season's competition, but decided to use the new-fangled Mongoose bat this time. Its shorter blade and longer handle - designed to ensure maximum hitting power - have failed him three times out of four (judged against last year's 52.00 average), but he is the tournament's leading six-hitter with 11 and well on his way to bettering last year's total of 22, and perhaps even Sanath Jayasuriya's tournament record of 31.

Tobias Gourlay Says: Back Robin Uthappa at [7.0] to be Top Bangalore Batsman

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