Indian Premier League - IPL / Tobias Gourlay / 07 April 2010 /

Tobias Gourlay sees new arrivals helping Bangalore get stronger and stronger as the tournament goes on.

Venue and Conditions

Thursday's only IPL game takes place at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, home of Anil Kumble's Royal Challengers. The 39-year-old's team have won three of their four matches there so far. It's not clear how much of an influence Jumbo has on his groundsman, but to date the pitch has been very unhelpful to pace bowlers, who have 21 wickets at 45.00 between them, while spinners have 11 wickets at 24.45.

Team News

The Royal Challengers lost in Delhi last time out and will surely bring Dale Steyn back in for Cameron White, who bowled a single over for 19 runs and made only four as an opener in the Indian capital. Manish Pandey could then resume his successful opening partnership with Jacques Kallis.

The Chargers are in desperately poor form, having lost five in a row, and have a hugely effective opening bowler twiddling his thumbs on the bench (Chaminda Vaas) but changes seem unlikely. RP Singh gave a much-improved bowling performance against the Rajasthan Royals on Monday, as did his less illustrious team-mate, Harmeet. That game was Dwayne Smith's first of the season and the powerful West Indian all-rounder should get another chance in this match.

Match Odds

IPL 2010 is more than half done, but Bangalore and Deccan have avoided each other to this point (they meet again in Nagpur four days after this match). The Royal Challengers won their two meetings in India a couple of years ago. In South Africa last year there was a win apiece in the group stages, before the Chargers won the final.

Bangalore's increasingly strong batting line-up helps make them [1.68] to win this encounter. With the Kumars, Praveen and R Vinay, offering good seam-bowling support to Dale Steyn, and Kumble offering formidably economical leg-spin, they easily justify favouritism over the struggling Chargers.

Top Batsman

Ross Taylor's performances in the past have made him popular with Bangalore fans. On Sunday, the Kiwi thrashed 22 from 10 balls in his first IPL game of this year. He did that from No. 5, but has previously been used in every position between No. 3 and No. 6. His floating role makes ante-post betting on his team's Top Batsman market risky, especially given strong competition from Kallis, Kevin Pietersen and Robin Uthappa.

Captain Adam Gilchrist has been a constant favourite to be Deccan's Top Batsman, but has consistently let down his backers. Rohit Sharma, IPL 2009's Under-23 Player of the Tournament, is up to No. 3 in the order and has won this market four times already. When it opens for this game, Deccan's leading run-scorer will probably be the value bet.

Most Sixes

The two teams are similarly priced around evens to hit most sixes, even though Deccan have conceded as many sixes as anyone except Chennai and have scored four fewer than Bangalore.

Deccan's major players in this market are Gilchrist, whose underperformance we noted above, Sharma, Herschelle Gibbs, who has been dropped for Smith, and Andrew Symonds, who has now gone five matches and 95 balls without a maximum.

In contrast, the Royal Challengers' Uthappa has been clearing the boundary as regularly as anyone (17 sixes from 131 balls), while the newly arrived Taylor managed three in his brief season-debut knock. With Pietersen and Virat Kohli also likely to swing for the fences at some point, Bangalore have much more than half a chance of coming out on top in this market.

Trivia

A week and a half ago Taylor scored the fastest Test century ever made by a New Zealander (81 balls). After 19 fours and four sixes, he ended up with 138 from 104 balls. A fine warm-up for the challenges ahead with Bangalore.

Tobias Gourlay Says: Back Bangalore at [2.02] v Deccan in Most Sixes market

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