With Stephen Fleming gone home for the birth of his child, MS Dhoni looks about the only real dangerman in the Chennai lineup. However with Punjab at odds around the $1.50-$1.55 mark, we won't be tipping them as it appears a touch short. We would be astounded if Punjab don't win but we don't want to be taking that price.  

 

Remarkably, Chennai have actually beaten Punjab in both encounters. And as we have seen before in this tournament, it only takes a bad five minutes and the unthinkable can happen. So we will be looking for something at better odds in this game, but of course cheering for Chennai to get through here and then beat Jaipur in the final.  

 

We know Marsh, with 593 IPL runs at 74, has been the batsman of the tournament and has a huge future for Australia. The son of Swampy will probably go a long way. But right now fellow Punjab opener James Hopes is a better and much more experienced player. Hopes has had a pretty ordinary IPL scoring 219 runs at 21.9. But Mr Cricket has seen a lot of the mop-haired allrounder from Queensland and knows that on his day he is one of the cleanest hitters and smartest players in world cricket. Sure Marsh has scored plenty of runs in this tournament but Hopes, who has already played 28 one-day international for his country, has more experience in producing in pressure games. Lasseters market has Hopes as the $1.95 outsider to score more runs than Marsh ($1.85) and we like Hopes here for 1 unit. He is a good player at good odds and while Marsh has had a great tournament, this game comes with the added scrutiny and pressure of being a semi-final. Get on Hopes for a one unit bet.