Indian Premier League - IPL / Tobias Gourlay / 11 April 2011 /

Tobias Gourlay thinks there is value in backing the Bangalore Royal Challengers against the tournament favourites

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Daniel Vettori has replaced Anil Kumble as Royal Challengers Bangalore captain this year. He leads a team containing match-winning batsmen and bowlers. Native talent includes new signing SS Tiwary, whose MS Dhoni impressions will always be let down by his left-handedness. If Tillakaratne Dilshan and AB de Villiers fail, he might be the one to save the day.

Mumbai Indians

Sachin Tendulkar is synonymous with last year's losing finalists. Mumbai's captain and opening bat top-scored in their first match of the tournament and will once again be expected to build the platform from which the likes of Kieron Pollard can tee-off.

Match Odds

Bangalore and Mumbai both bowled first and won away from home in their opening matches. Mumbai are the tournament favourites and short-priced jollies to win another away game on Tuesday.

Zaheer Khan and Dirk Nannes are a couple of wicket-taking left-armers who could make trouble even for Mumbai's strong top-order on a good batting pitch. It is debatable whether any team should ever start as low as [1.66] for an IPL match, where one-off events are much more important than in other forms of cricket, and Bangalore hold the value at [2.42].

Total Match Run Outs

The M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore was the fastest-scoring among the regular venues in IPL 2010 and did not seem much different at last month's 50-over World Cup.

With teams under pressure to set or chase a high score and wickets hard to come by in other ways, Over 1.5 Run Outs comes into prospect. There were three run outs in Mumbai's previous match and Bangalore have some excellent ground fielders.

Best Bet: Back Bangalore @ [2.42] to beat Mumbai

You can now follow Tobias on Twitter: @tobiasgourlay

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