Bangalore Royal Challengers v Deccan Chargers (Hyderabad)

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IPL - Bangalore Royal Challengers v Deccan Chargers (Hyderabad)

WHAT are these teams doing in the Indian Premier League? Not much it seems, with both anchored to the bottom to the table with just one win from five starts. While Bangalore (full of Test players unsuited to Twenty20) were tipped by many to struggle from day one, Hyderabad have been the huge disappointment of the IPL. The big-name team was as short as $3.75 to take the IPL title in pre-tournament markets but they have now blown out the gate and you can get big odds. How can a team that at various stages has included Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, Herschelle Gibbs, Shahid Afridi, VVS Laxman and Rohit Sharma fail to fire? Simple - they have not played as a team. Their task is not any easier now Andrew Symonds has departed.

Bangalore has been the real dour struggler of the IPL. Their struggles can be summed up in two words. Rahul and Dravid! Their captain, who is totally unsuited to 20-over cricket, has batted just about everywhere in the order without firing a single bullet. The owner of the Bangalore franchise, liquor baron Vijay Mallya, is now probably more interested in using the franchise to cross-promote his grog.

If you assess this game purely on paper, Hyderabad should absolutely smash Bangalore. The Hyderabad top-order has Gilchrist, Laxman, Sharma, Gibbs and Afridi while Bangalore have Praveen Kumar, Wasim Jaffer, Misbah ul haq, Jacques Kallis (who simply doesn't fire in 20-over cricket) and the under-pressure Dravid. It's game over.. or is it? On the face of it the shortish quote for Hyderabad (around the $1.55 - $1.65 mark) looks about right. But we will not be touching Hyderabad with a ten-foot pole until we see something better from them, and certainly not at a short quote. We don't want to go near Bangalore either. This is a game to stay out of match betting because its busted team against busted team and we want to see something better from both of these mobs before we go putting our hard earned on. So let's flick the match betting and look at a few exotic bets we don't mind.

BOUCHER FOR BANGALORE

Bangalore has the most tipsy top-order in the tournament and in this 20-over format we simply don't rate Wasim Jaffer (not good enough), Jacques Kallis (too slow for this form) and Rahul Dravid (where do we start?!). Mark Boucher, the South African wicketkeeper, comes in at No.6 and could even come in higher if the Bangalore run-rate needs pushing. Which it probably will!

We love Boucher in this form of cricket because he is a big hitter but also has a good head on his shoulders. He has scored 85 runs in the tournament and that doesn't sound much. But, despite not getting much time in the middle, his 85 runs mean he is Bangalore's third highest runscorer. And the top scorer Ross Taylor (149) has left. That leaves only Kallis (112 runs) ahead of Boucher. Bangalore do have a problem with their overseas quote and one international player will have to miss this game but it won't be Boucher because he is the wicketkeeper. We love the quote of $8.50 for Boucher to be Bangalore's top scorer against Hyderabad with Paddypower, have 0.25 units. He is a good chance at No.6 and let's hope Bangalore show some initiative and push him up the order.

GET ON SHARMA

We have been ulta-impressed by 21-year-old Indian batsmen Rohit Sharma since we saw him in Australia last summer. Sharma is so good he is already being compared to a young Sachin Tendulkar. While many bigger batting guns have misfired in the IPL, Sharma is the tournament's fifth top runscorer with 178 runs at an average of 59 and a strike rate of 160. Sharma will probably come in at No.4 for Hyderabad and we think he is going much better than Bangalore No.4 Jacques Kallis.

We don't like Kallis in this format at all - there is a reason he was dropped from South Africa's T20 side. Kallis's 112 IPL runs are at an average of 22 and a strike rate of 117. We like Sharma at $1.75 to score more runs than Kallis in Lasseters' market and we'll have 1 unit. Sharma may well have to face better bowlers than Kallis will here, but it shouldn't matter. Sharma is all class and a player on the up while Kallis is on struggle street.

Kings Punjab XI (Mohali) v Kolkata Knight Riders

THIS is an intriguing clash between two teams whose recent form could not be any more different. Punjab has strung together three successive wins while Kolkata (who started the tournament in impressive fashion) have hit the skids with three successive losses (one to lowly Mumbai). Kolkata have been badly wounded by the departures of batting guns Brendon McCullum and Ricky Ponting.

The great thing about this game is it pits several rising Australian players against each other. Shaun Marsh and James Hopes (fitness permitting) will turn out for Punjab while David Hussey and Brad Hodge are on the Kolkata side. Shaun Marsh is the son of former Australian opening batsman Geoff Marsh and you could not have been more impressed by his blazing opening to the IPL when he flayed an unbeaten 84 the other night. Australian selectors have showed what they think of Marsh by including him in the one-day squad for the West Indies tour. If Hopes is fit to play, it would be terrific to see two Australians potentially opening the batting for Punjab. Kolkata weapon Hodge, another late IPL starter, could not have had more contrasting fortunes than Marsh when he was unluckily run out in his first IPL hit-out.

Punjab look to have a beautifully balanced side with Marsh, Hopes (possibly), Kumar Sangakkara, Yuvraj Singh and Mahela Jayawardene topping the batting. They will still miss Brett Lee with the ball but they do have international paceman Sreesanth and Gagandeep Singh who went OK the other night. Even if Punjab's bowling attack concedes plenty, their batting looks to have the firepower to chase any target down.

By contrast, too much relies on Hussey and Hodge for Kolkata. Sourav Ganguly has struggled for most of the tournament and he might be rattled from his altercation with Shane Warne. Kolkata batsmen Salman Butt and Debabrata Das have so far looked out of their depth and their batting lineup doesn't look half as good as the Punjab side. We have to admit that Kolkata's bowling has been impressive at times with unknown paceman Ashok Dinda playing well and Umar Gul and Ishant Sharma providing sharp pace. But, as we have always said with 20-over cricket, a good batting side will beat a good bowling side nine times out of ten.

We won't be going too hard at this match because we know Hussey and Hodge have class, and can pull a rabbit out of a hat, while Kolkata's bowlers can acquit themselves well. But we just keep turning back to the strong Punajb batting side and it's hard to envisiage them not geting a score in the 190-200 range. That will be simply too big a mountain to climb for Kolkata so we want to be on Punjab here. We thought they would be a fair bit shorter than the $1.81 being offered by RacingOdds. It is certainly worth a 1 unit play.