IPL / Edward Hammond-Kenny / 25 March 2010 / Leave a comment Bet Now View Market

Jacques Kallis is enjoying his time in the IPL and Bangalore will go off slight favourites against Delhi but what are the best bets? Edward Hammond-Kenny reports.

Venue and Conditions

Coming off the back of a comfortable win against Chennai, Jacques Kallis and his Royal Challengers Bangalore will play their second home game inside three days against the Virendir Sehwag-inspired Delhi Daredevils. Their ground may be mundanely named the M Chinnaswamy Stadium but with a full house of near 50,000 in attendance it is a cauldron, so far Bangalore have thrived off the pressure winning all their matches here this IPL and will look to make it four out of four at Delhi's expense. Pitches here tend to favour the batsman so expect plenty of runs.

Team News

Bangalore have no reason to change the team that has won four in a row, but this being the IPL you can never rule out some unnecessary tinkering.

Delhi are still sweating on their captain Gautam Gambhir's hamstring injury which has forced him to miss the last two games, he has supposedly been treated and is fit to return but we will likely only know at game time. Their batting has more problems with two out of form overseas stars. Tillakaratne Dilshan sat out the last match, though AB de Villiers hasn't set the world on fire yet this IPL either. One will likely miss out again.

Match Odds

Bangalore are slight favourites, available at [1.88] at the time of writing with Delhi available at [2.1]. Despite a slight blip in his last game, Bangalore will hope Jacques Kallis can continue to pile up the runs and set the foundation for his teams batting displays. With their batting prowess you can overlook the Bangalore bowling but in Dale Steyn, Anil Kumble and Praveen Kumar, along with Kallis, they have one of the strongest bowling line ups in the tournament and they are clicking, as shown by restricting a powerful Chennai line up to just 135 last match.

Delhi are in a mini slump having lost their last three matches, getting Gambhir back will be a huge plus as he stabilises the top of their batting order, allowing the big hitters like Sehwag and David Warner to express themselves fully. The Daredevils bowling is a concern though, beyond Dirk Nannes and Amit Mishra they are very weak.

Top Batsman

Jacques Kallis was finally dismissed against Chennai and for the first time this IPL he failed to top score for Bangalore. Robin Uthappa took that honour as he smashed his second half century of the tournament, he now averages over 50 this IPL. The only other Bangalore player with any current form is the young Indian opener Manish Pandey.

Clearly Gambhir's fitness will influence the prices in the Delhi Top Batsman market. If he is fit David Warner could drop down the order to make way for him despite his fine current form. Sehwag will still head the market but one to consider is Dinesh Karthik who hit a quickfire 46 last time out.

Featured Market

If Bangalore bat first their will be plenty of action on their innings runs market, the Delhi bowling attack outside of Nannes is not as strong as some other teams and Bangalore's in form batting unit have the ability to post a big score.

Trivia

Jacques Kallis batting average this tournament currently stands at a mindboggling 283. Will the IPL ever see an average as high again?

Best Bet

Continue to ride David Warners current good form and back him to be Top Delhi Batsman if you can get 4.5 or higher.