Betting tips / Richard O’Hagan / 26 April 2012 / Leave a comment Bet Now View Market

With just one solitary point from their matches so far, and that only due to the misfortunes of a washed-out game, Richard O'Hagan wonders why it is the Deccan Chargers haven't clicked during their 2012 IPL season.

Pune
Pune's schizoid IPL season continued on Tuesday with a hefty loss to league leaders Delhi, a side they had beaten only three days before. In losing by eight wickets with a whopping four overs to spare they managed to squander a record-breaking stand of 145 between Manish Pandey and Robin Uthappa that, on any other day, ought to have won the game for them.

Any IPL game which yields over 300 runs for the loss of only four wickets has clearly been played on a pitch with little for the bowlers, which makes it all the more surprising that Pune captain Sourav Ganguly only called upon Alfonso Thomas to bowl two overs. Thomas, one of the best T20 bowlers around, played his first game of this season in Saturday's win and took 3-22 from his four overs. Ganguly, for all his many years of experience, will need to manage his bowling corps a lot better if his team are to return to winning ways against the competition's weakest side.

Deccan
The Chargers picked up their first point of the season on Tuesday, in their sixth game of the tournament. Unfortunately, it came because their match against Kolkata was rained off. This means that the team with the most annoying fight song in the IPL remains winless and has, frankly, shown little fight so far. Four of their five defeats have come in the final over, whilst the other was a 74 run thrashing at the hands of Chennai Super Kings. If Kolkata miss out on the semi-finals by one point they will be cursing their bad luck at conceding a point to Deccan.

The baffling thing is that Deccan really should be so much better than this. They are captained by a current Wisden Cricketer of the Year (Kumar Sangakkara) and also boast the world's number one bowler in Dale Steyn and former Australian T20 captain Cameron White. For some reason the team has just not gelled this year and they have suffered for it, despite using six different overseas players and almost twenty players in total in their five completed games so far. Without a very rapid turn around the 2009 champions are going to miss the finals again.

Venue and Conditions
Until Delhi made light work of their 147 run target, the Pune pitch had been difficult to score on and yet seemingly offered little for the batsmen. It is no surprise that batsmen who can hit the ball a long way, such as the home side's Jesse Ryder and Steve Smith, have prospered most, but those runs have come in spite of the pitch, rather than because of it.

Match Odds
Deccan have been so poor that it is hard to find any reason to back them. Pune are at home and, as stated above, have the batsmen to take advantage of the pitch conditions. Moreover, the relatively benign nature of the pitch is likely to negate the threat posed by Steyn.
Back Pune to win at odds of 1.75

Pune Top Batsman
Ryder has already had scores of 73 and 86 in the IPL this year. Although he suffered a second ball duck on Tuesday his form and the nature of the pitch make him a good bet to top score for the home team at odds of around 4.0.

Deccan Top Batsman
Picking a top batsman for a side which has scarcely performed so far - and, when it has, has fallen apart at the end - is not an easy task. Given the sort of batsmen who have done well in Pune so far, White's bludgeoning batting style could finally come off here. He is available at odds of around 7.0.