Betting tips / Andrew Hughes / 30 April 2012 / Leave a comment Bet Now View Market

The Knight Riders are Andrew Hughes value bet to overcome the Super Kings in Monday's Indian Premier League clash.

Team News
The series in the West Indies ended on Friday so Ben Hilfenhaus and Michael Hussey will soon be available for the home team, although neither are likely to feature here. Chennai tend to keep a settled team so we are unlikely to see any significant changes following their defeat against Punjab.

Kolkata are going well and won't want to tamper too much with a winning formula, but Yusuf Pathan must be close to being dropped after a string of failures. Shakib Al Hasan has been on the bench recently, but there seems to be no way to get him into the team with Sunil Narine bowling so well.

Venue and Conditions
The M A Chidambaram Stadium usually provides a fairly flat surface although Chennai's spinners do well there, due to the big boundaries. Scores have tended to be under the 160 mark but Bangalore did hit 205 there earlier on in the tournament, a total that Chennai chased down. Temperatures are forecast to be in the 30s and it should be another sweltering session for the team that fields first.

Match Odds
At the time of writing, these teams are second and third in the points table, so this promises to be a close game. After four seasons of disappointment, the high profile Knight Riders are starting to look the part and along with Delhi have been the form team of the tournament.

Chennai have been less impressive. Their big name batsmen, most notably Suresh Raina and M S Dhoni have yet to fire and the performance of spinner Ravinchandran Ashwin has also been a disappointment. Yet they have picked up enough victories to stay in touch in third place and as the business end of the tournament approaches, we can expect the reigning champions to up their game.

Kolkata's star batsmen Jacques Kallis and Brendon McCullum have also under-performed, but their less-heralded bowlers have impressed, particularly Sunil Narine and their bowling has been far more consistent than Chennai's. Given how closely matched these teams are, the value bet is clearly Kolkata at 2.14.

Top Chennai Batsman
Faf du Plessis is by a distance the form batsman for Chennai and is the sensible selection at 3.75 or better, but although he has been scratching around for runs, it can't be long before Suresh Raina comes good and he might be worth a look at 4.0 or more.

Top Kolkata Batsman
Brendon McCullum has a really big score in him and should be strongly considered at around 4.0 but Gautam Gambhir has been in sublime form for Kolkata and is the safe place to put your money at 3.75 or better.

Featured Market
Five games have been played at this venue so far and in four of them the number of sixes hit was in single figures. Back '9 and under' in the Total Sixes market at 2.5 or better

Recommended Bet
Back Kolkata to beat Chennai @2.14