IPL - Mumbai v Rajasthan (Jaipur)

The man of the tournament so far plays in this game. Have a guess who? That's right - one Shane Keith Warne! Remember him - he used to play for Australia! The interesting thing is that Warne has been the main man in the IPL not so much for his legspin deeds (which have still been terrific) but for his captaincy. Warne's Jaipur franchise (written off everywhere before the tournament) is sitting on top of the IPL ladder after winning its last five matches. And it's Warne's captaincy that has got them there. There have been many pieces of tactical brilliance - such as when Warne planned to get offspinner Yusuf Pathan on early to spin the ball away from Adam Gilchrist. It worked and Gilchrist was done like a dinner out of his ground. Warne has also worked wonders with his own team management - successfully daring to use two legspiners in one match and handing the new ball to little known paceman Sohail Tanvir who took an incredible six wickets. The Jaipur team has its share of stars - Graeme Smith, Shane Watson and Yusuf Pathan - but it is Warne who is the key man, the puppetmaster pulling the strings. The great thing about Warne is that he is getting the very best out of unsung players like Tanvir and pint-sized batsman Swapnil Asnodkar.

Jaipur come up against a resurgent Mumbai side which is gaining confidence after successive wins. There seems no chance that Sachin Tendulkar (groin injury) will make his long-awaited IPL appearance for Mumbai. Batting quality - and depth - remains Mumbai's major shortcoming. West Indian Dwayne Bravo has Mumbai's only half century of the IPL with big-dollar signing Sanath Jayasuriya proving a major disappointment. On the plus side for Mumbai is their recent form and the fact that Shaun Pollock has stepped up to lead the side well in the absence of firstly Tendulkar, then the suspended Harbhajan Singh. However it is impossible to look past the irrestistable form of Jaipur here. They have three of the competition's form batsman - Graeme Smith, Shane Watson and impressive big hitter Yusuf Pathan. Their bowling also looks dangeorus with swingman Tanvir firing on all cylinders and Warne and Watson also bowling well. Outside of the veteran Pollock, Mumbai's bowling attack is made up of no-names. But it is Mumbai's batting that really concerns us. Jaiour clearly have the trumps here. Mumbai have too many batsmen out of form and some of those players - including Jaysuriya and Robin Uthappa - don't have half has much batting class as the Jaipur top-order. Mumbai's batting predictament can be summed up easily with their leading runscorer Uthappa in only 10th place in the list of IPL runscorers.

When assessing IPL games, we first look for batting strength and then look for a world-class spin bowler. Jaipur has both of these in spades while Mumbai doesn't. It's Jaipur all the way here - for their sixth win on the trot. Warne always liked a punt and we think he would have liked the look of our suggested bet - a 1.5 unit investment on Jaipur at $1.66 with Paddy Power & Blue Square or $1.65 with Lasseters. While we don't generally like tipping favourites in this comp, we have seen in recent weeks that even in 20-over cricket a good team will just about always beat a mediocre team. Also, we are not suggesting this as an official play, but it is worth keeping an eye on the value of Yusuf Pathan in Jaipur high-bat markets. He is a sensation this bloke - hits the ball as far as anyone. We can't wait to see him improve even further.

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