Mr Cricket: Kings Punjab XI (Mohali) v Mumbai Indians

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IPL - Kings Punjab XI (Mohali) v Mumbai Indians

WELL, I have just watched one of the most extraordinary games of cricket I have ever seen. The Twenty 20 fun police (those who keep bagging the game) will never be pleased if they didn't enjoy the amazing scenes of Jaipur beating Hyderabad last night. Andrew Symonds' 117 off 53 balls (can you believe that) wasn't enough as Jaipur chased down 214 with one ball to spare. As good as it gets. And we got the punting biscuits on roughies Jaipur - even better! Now let's try and get the weekend off to a good start - and perhaps get a bit of extra cash for the Derby and Doncaster on Saturday - by having a look at the IPL clash of Mohali and Mumbai tonight.

The form of these teams is nothing to write home about - both have played two and lost two. However, as we have seen over the last week, bad form is only temporary in 20-over cricket and can be turned around very quickly. We do like the look of Mumbai here and we are certain they are on the brink of producing a dominant performance. Both of their losses have been extremely close (one with two balls remaining and the other by six runs) and they look to be a darn good Twenty20 side without getting over the line just yet. However a question mark still hangs over the fitness of Mumbai captain Sachin Tendulkar - although we think he must be getting awfully close to returning after not playing any part in the tournament so far. Even if Tendulkar doesn't play Mumbai have some big guns like Sanath Jayasuriya, Luke Ronchie and co and we do really like the fact that they have ace spinner Harbhajan Singh.

However we have to admit that Mohali - including James Hopes, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Yuvraj Singh - will be very hard to toss. We put the result of this game in the too hard to call category. We would really like to be on Mumbai at about the $2 mark because we have liked what we have seen in their two losses and have more than a sneaky feeling they will win. However we won't be making this an official play because of the doubts over Tendulkar and the fact that Mohali do have some big weapons. Let's look elsewhere to pick up some cash.

MOST SIXES

We generally don't like bets like this but we feel the Punjab side have the greater sheer batting firepower and will clear the boundary more often that Mumbai. Punjab is stocked with six-hitters such as James Hopes, Kumar Sangakkara, Yuvraj Singh, Irfan Pathan and even Brett Lee. Yuvraj, in particular, is a renowned six-hitter after hitting six sixes one over just last year. Mumbai on the other hand, look to have more conventional batsmen. Tendulkar, Robin Uthappa, Dwayne Bravo and co can all hit big innings but aren't raw six hitters. Mumbai's Luke Ronchi can hit huge sixes but he hasn't found form yet and another Mumbai six-hitter, Sanath Jayasuriya, isn't seeing it as well as he used to. For these reasons we'll have 1 unit on Punjab to hit more sixes at $2.05 with Lasseters or Bill Hurley, $2 with Centrebet.

HIGH-BAT

Opener James Hopes and middle-order strike weapon Yuvraj Singh are the form batsmen of the Punjab side and their explosive games are made to order for Twenty20 cricket. If Punjab get a big score, then it will almost certainly be because either Hopes or Yuvraj has fired. We think both men are worth a small 0.25 unit bet to be Punjab's topscorer at $5 with bet365.