Desert Vipers v MI Emirates ILT20 Final Tips: Vipers should claim the glory

• Vipers clearly the best side

• Emirates have suffered player drain

• Batting second at night key

• Vipers a bet in-play

• Pollard eyecatching at 13/27.50

Desert Vipers v MI Emirates
Sunday 4 January, 14.30
TV: Live on Sky Sports

Desert Vipers v MI Emirates ILT20 team news

Vipers have been largely unscathed from player departures to the SAT0 and Big Bash. Noor Ahmed has left for the former but otherwise it is injuries that have lost them key men; Shimron Hetmyer and Lockie Ferguson both ruled out. Jason Roy replaced the former with 19 runs in three innings a bit of a disaster. Ferguson only managed five matches.

Probable Vipers XI: Fakhar (Naseem Shah sub), Gous, S Curran, Holden, Roy, Hasan Nawaz, Lawrence, Pahal, Payne, Tariq, Tanveer

Emirates have really suffered from the player drain. Jonny Bairstow, Rashid Khan and Nic Pooran have all left with Dan Mousley and Andre Fletcher not quite on the same level in terms of replacements. Skip Kieron Pollard has been batting at No 4. Faz Farooqi is sub in and out with Fletcher. 

Probable MIE XI: Waseem, Fletcher (Farooqi), banton, Pollard, Krisnamurthi, Mousley, Shepherd, Shakib, Ghazanfar, Zahoor, Arab Gul

Desert Vipers v MI Emirates ILT20 pitch report

In the last 41 night matches 27 have been won by the team batting second so the toss is hugely important. The RPO in that study sample is a shade more than eight. The reason for the bias is the ball getting wet because of dew, adding pace to the wicket and bowlers struggling to find control.

Desert Vipers v MI Emirates ILT20 match prediction

The toss bias is signficant enough not to rule out a surprise Emirates win, which explains why the match odds market is nervous about splitting the pair. Vipers are currently 1.9620/21 with Emirates 2.0421/20.

The toss winner (and therefore chaser) should shorten significantly. If it goes the way of Vipers they should charge to the title and 1.705/7 would be a bet. they won the league at a canter  and have won two of the three head-to-heads

In-play, we're not averse getting with Vipers to chase up to 220. Despite the bias we haven't seen huge totals chased but would take the gamble on this ocassion. At this stage we'll just put in for the status quo to return in-play at 1.9620/21 and keep fingers crossed.

Desert Vipers v MI Emirates ILT20 player bets

Fakhar Zaman is due a win for Vipers at 10/34.33 for top bat and has found form at exactly the right time. Pollard can be considered too big on ability, win rate and batting order at 13/27.50. 

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