IPL Betting / Ed Hawkins / 06 April 2011 /

Ed Hawkins has all the stats to help you make a decision on who will be top tournament bat. Follow him on Twitter here

Ordinarily we are quite cosy in our belief of the rules for betting on top runscorers in limited-overs cricket. They cosset us, a familiar face to help out in the time of need. But hold on, the IPL is different, shaking our beliefs to the core.

It would not be unreasonable to reckon that opening batsmen are the only ones to get with, just as they are in ODIs. They have the opportunity to bat most overs and have the use of the powerplay overs. In IPL, it would appear that the finisher is value, however, whereas in ODIs he is not so hot.

Of the top 10 runscorers over the three events, only five (Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden and Sourav Ganguly) have consistently opened the batting. Suresh Raina, the Chennai middle-order player, is top of the charts with 1,375. Rohit Sharma is fourth, Jacques Kallis fifth, MS Dhoni eighth and Yusuf Pathan tenth.

Last year although Tendulkar topped the lists with 618 runs, he was one of three openers in the top five. Kallis was second, that man Raina was third and Murali Vijay, another Chennai bat, was fifth. So instead of blindly picking openers, it pays off to find a finisher.

Raina is the obvious choice. It is surprising not to see him around the [20.00] mark. In fact you can get [26.00]. Tendulkar is favourite at [14.00] with Virender Sehwag not far behind on [17.50]. But we have to rule him out on the basis of the dreadful Kotla surface he will have to bat on. He has never made a top five, too.

There are three more who are under serious consideration. Pune's Robin Uthappa, Bangalore's AB de Villiers and Mumbai's Sharma. They are all good prices.

Uthappa is a class act who surely has much to prove having been consistently overlooked by the India selectors. He can bat anywhere and it is to be hoped he is given a consistent slot. He is [40.00].

De Villiers, who has a fantastic record in India, impressed in the World Cup and was third top runscorer in IPL 2009. He is [29.00]. Sharma, who we know about, is [44.00].

Finally, we will stake a case for Brendon McCullum, who is now with Kochi. He is [44.00], which is probably overpriced. We have never been a huge fan but he is a blaster and surprisingly is as high as third on the list of all-time Twenty20 runscorers.

Best bets: S Raina top IPL runscorer @ [26.00], B McCullum top IPl runscorer @ [44.00]

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