Indian Premier League - IPL / Andrew Hughes / 17 May 2011 /

Chennai want to give themselves an extra bite of the play-off cherry by finishing in the top two whilst Kochi's hopes are hanging by the slenderest of mathematical threads.

Chennai
Wriddhiman Saha is the odd man out in the Chennai line-up; a wicket-keeper who doesn't get to keep wicket and who isn't a front line batsman. If Chennai are thinking of tinkering, his most likely replacement would be batsman Srikkanth Anirudha or the all-rounder Joginder Sharma

Kochi
Kochi are unlikely to want to alter a batting line-up that chased down Rajasthan's total in 8 overs last time and though the M A Chidambaram Stadium usually offers a spin-friendly surface, they may also decide to stick with their four man seam attack, given that Brad Hodge is a genuine third spin-bowling option.

Match Odds
Defending champions Chennai have a powerful batting line-up, are cruising into the play-offs and have home advantage, all of which explains their odds of [1.44] to win this game. But the [3.1] about a Kochi win looks far more attractive. After a stuttering tournament, they are finally looking the part, the big hitting of Brendon McCullum and Parthiv Patel supported by an experienced middle order and some high class seam bowling from Sreesanth and R P Singh. And whereas Chennai have one more Group game to go, this is Kochi's last desperate throw of the dice. They have nothing to lose and that could make them dangerous.

Top Kochi Batsman
McCullum is always short in this market, but he seems to be on a kamikaze mission to improve Kochi's run rate and the sensible option is to side with captain Mahela Jayawardene to build a match winning innings at [5.0] or better.

Best Bet

Andrew Hughes says: Back Kochi to beat Chennai @ 3.1

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