Indian Premier League - IPL / Tobias Gourlay / 18 March 2010 /

Ravi Bopara has been a prince among some pretty ordinary men for the King's XI Punjab, but can't be expected to do it all on his own again against the Deccan Chargers, says Tobias Gourlay.

Venue and Conditions

Cuttack is a difficult place to go, not just because the Barabati Stadium is more than an hour away from an airport and some decent accommodation, but also because it's a temporary home of the Deccan Chargers, the reigning IPL champions, who have been forced out of Hyderabad by political turmoil. This is Cuttack's first Twenty20 match.

Team News

The Deccan Chargers have a settled side built around a trio of players - Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds and Chaminda Vaas - whose international careers are over and one - Herschelle Gibbs - whose soon will be. All four made important contributions as the Chargers responded to an opening-day defeat with a comfortable win over the Chennai Super Kings. Local support for the overseas players comes from VVS Laxman and Rohit Sharma with the bat and RP Singh and Pragyan Ojha with the ball. In the absence of Fidel Edwards, space could be found for young Kemar Roach, if Gilchrist wants to improve his team's death bowling.

Brett Lee has gone back to Australia for an elbow check-up, leaving Kumar Sangakkara's Kings XI bowling attack a little underpowered. Sriv Sreesanth and Irfan Pathan, their Indian opening bowlers, were thrashed around the park last time out (6-0-75-0 between them), but replacements do not seem to be forthcoming. The batting line-up is up-to-scratch on paper, but Sangakkara, Yuvraj Singh and Mahela Jayawardene don't yet have a score of more than 26* between them.

Match Odds

The Chargers, who are 0 for 4 against the Kings XI, are [1.68] favourites to break their duck and win Friday's late game. It's often tempting in Twenty20 to make a case for backing the outsiders - in football-speak, the short format means the games are literally played on a knife edge - but bowling weaknesses mean Kings XI are too reliant on that middle-order coming good to make [2.32] seem like really good value.

Top Runscorer

Gilchrist, Gibbs and Symonds each have one score of 45 or above from the two games they've played so far and will dominate the Chargers' Top Batsman market. Neither of their Indian rivals, Laxman and Sharma, have even got halfway to 45 yet.

Perhaps he has (thus far unfounded) confidence in his middle-order, but Ravi Bopara has top-scored in both of the Kings XI's first two matches. With 75 against Royal Challengers Bangalore, his opening partner, Manvinder Bisla, came within a couple of runs of him. Now that doubts are creeping in about exactly what they have below them in the order, will they still play so freely?

Opening Partnership

Chaminda Vaas might not have been playing if the Chargers' West Indians had been available before now, but so far he has given two excellent swing-bowling demonstrations to younger colleagues and rivals across the tournament. He took two wickets in his first over against the Kolkata Knight Riders and three wickets in his first two overs against the Chennai Super Kings. How do you make his good form pay? Back Deccan Chargers at [1.8] in the Opening Partnership market.

Trivia

In a miserable IPL 2008 campaign the Chargers lost all seven of their matches in Hyderabad. For security reasons IPL 2009 was played in South Africa. Last Friday, they lost the opening game of this year's tournament at the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy in Mumbai. All of this means Adam Gilchrist's men have never actually won a home match in the IPL.

Tobias Gourlay Says: Back Deccan Chargers Opening Partnership at [1.8]

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