Indian Premier League - IPL / Andrew Hughes / 05 April 2010 /

Shane Warne rolled back the years on Monday with a stunning bowling performance against Deccan Chargers. His Rajasthan side have crept into semi-final contention after a woeful start and will be confident of rolling over Punjab. Andrew Hughes previews the game.

Venue and Conditions

During the first IPL, Rajasthan won all seven games that they played at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium and twice posted scores of over 190. Nevertheless, the average first innings total there is 158 and some teams struggled on a slow pitch where the ball sticks a little in the surface. We can expect a sluggish track on which runs will not flow easily.

Team News

After Rajasthan's stunning success against Deccan, there is no pressing need to make changes. The most vulnerable player is Michael Lumb, who was none too impressive on Monday but he may get another chance.

Punjab dropped Brett Lee last time and will stick with Rusty Theron. Adrian Barath waits in the wings, but with their batting line up starting to look the part, they are likely to name an unchanged side.

Match Odds

A tricky one to weigh up. Both sides were down and out last week, but Rajasthan performed miracles to shut out Deccan whilst Punjab kept their semi-final hopes just about alive by chasing down a big target in Kolkata at the weekend.

Rajasthan have home advantage and their big Australian stars, Warne and Shane Watson give their bowling attack the edge. But on a tricky pitch, it is batting quality that holds the key and Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara will be in their element. This game is going to be tighter than the market suggests and the value lies with Punjab at [2.14]

Top Runscorer Market

For Punjab, it is best to go with the in form man, Jayawardene, who seems to relish opening the batting. At odds of around [5.0] he would be preferable to Yuvraj Singh, who may not find this pitch to his liking.

Yusuf Pathan made a blazing start to the IPL, but bowlers have finally worked him out and it is best to side with the dangerous Watson who is a reliable betting proposition and should be available at around [4.0] or so.

Featured Market

During the first IPL, the average number of sixes scored at this ground was eight per game so you may wish to consider backing '9 and Under' in the Total Sixes market at [3.0] or better

Trivia

IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi was previously the head of the Rajasthan Cricket Association and was responsible for renovating the Sawai Mansingh Stadium.

Andrew Hughes says back Kings XI Punjab at [2.14]

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