Major League Cricket Ttips Matches Five & Six: Unicorns eye bite out of Big Apple outfit

• Knight Riders' MLC misery continues

• Oakland Coliseum pitch  may start to tire

• Super Kings may be too smart

• MINY likely to be overrated against Unicorns

• Read the unmissable MLC team-by-team guide HERE

LA Knight Riders v Texas Super Kings
Sunday 15 June, 22.00
TV: Live on Willow

Los Angeles Knight Riders v Texas Super Kings MLC tips

LA Knight Riders' miserable MLC continued with defeat by San Francisco Unicorns in their first match of the season. It's now three wins in 13 for the franchise which just hasn't been able to get going on a country which has a dim view of losers. 

Bowling first against Unicorns they went round the park but on a baseball ground which offers batters good angles, a target of 220 was hardly insurmountable. And it looked like they were making a game of it until the 13th when they lost Unmukt Chand, their set batter, and Andre Russell, their big-hitting hope, in the space of two balls.

Knight Riders are still waiting on Russell's West Indian colleagues to arrive from Ireland and until Rovman Powell, Jason Holder and Sherfane Rutherford arrive they are a team to be swerved. Early match odds suggest this is lining up to be a choice affair.

Although we're not enamoured with the Texas Super Kings line-up, we would have made them favourites because they may be an RCB-light outfit. All quiet efficiency and decent nous in the field. They have a win under their belt following a strong comeback against MI New York when they squeezed brilliantly with pace off and outsmarted them in the field. That might say more about MINY, though.

The front five of Texas needs to fire and it doesn't look a convincing selection of Conway, Du Plessis, Mukkamala, Mitchell and Milind. It is asking a lot of the domestic duo to go up against better quality bowlers than they are used to at a crucial stage while we've never been convinced by Daryl Mitchell in the modern batting game. They may be a team which needs a worn surface to produce their best.

To that end, South Africa all-rounder Donovan Ferreira may have a chunky top-bat win at some stage so check his price when Sportsbook produce numbers. We would expect at least 9/110.00. A similar strategy for Knight Riders may pay off with Russell and Narine down the order. 

San Francisco Unicorns v MI New York
Monday 15 June, 02:00
TV: Live on Willow

San Francisco Unicorns v MI New York MLC tips

The markets, whether it's the IPL, UAE league, SAT20 or the MLC are often enthral to the Mumbai Indians franchise. We saw that in game one when they went off hot favourites against Texas and these pages delivered a rant that there was no evidence they should be in the 1.608/13 region.

It will be interesting to see how the match odds react here. Unicorns are two from two and are blitzing teams up front. First by Finn Allen against Freedom and then Jake Fraser-McGurk with a rare onslaught versus Knight Riders.

MINY produced a bit of a stinker of the chase against Texas. Requiring an eminently gettable 186, they started horribly, were rescued by Michael Bracewell and bang in charge only to lose their way again. Man for man there is nothing to suggest MINY should be anywhere close to favourite status. Perhaps there is a fear/expectation of what Nic Pooran could do. That is legitimate but one man doesn't not make a favourite. They have also lost Tashid Khan and Azmatullah Omarzai.

So when the market matures, if Unicorns find themselves in a choice affair or slight outsiders at the 2.1011/10 mark we would advise that they would be the bet. We will also repeat the tie trade which has come off already in MLC. Taking big numbers at the outset ranging from 30.029/1 to 50.049/1 a last-over finish can collapse the odds meaning you can lay off in the teens.

The Oakland drop-in pitch is interesting. Scores of 265-189-219-145 (most recent last) may mean heavy traffic is starting to take its toll. With the first nine matches played at the venue we could now start to see some lower first-innings scores with a high par line expected.

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