IPL 2011

By Bigjoe

Commences 8th April 2011

The fourth edition of the Indian Premier League has seen quite a few changes from the previous tournaments. Most notably, there was a fresh auction held after the majority of players were released by their franchises. There are also two brand new franchises, Kochi Tuskers from Kerala and Pune Warriors.

The aftermath of last years IPL also saw controversy off the pitch with allegations of fraud, resulting in the commissioner Lalit Modi facing charges in relation to his dealings. Two teams, Punjab and Rajistan, were briefly suspended from the IPL but both were reinstated in time to take part this year.

India are on a cricketing high after the national side lifted the World Cup in the ODI format and this tournament in the shorter format hopes to build on that success. The controversies of the past year seem to have been forgotten by the masses and an exciting tournament is anticipated.

Once again , an array of world superstars will be on display with each of the ten teams parading some big names. Two teams stand out for me though and I believe they will prove to be too strong for the rest and one of them will be the most likely winners.

The first of these are the reigning champions, Chennai Super Kings. Led by the World Cup winning captain M.S Dhoni, they have the balance in both the batting and bowling to go all the way again. On the batting front, Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay, Mike Hussey and Dwayne Bravo represent a formidable lineup and with the bowling led by Doug Bollinger, Ravichanderan Ashwin and Nuwan Kulasekara, this team will be hard to beat.

The other team I like the look of is Mumbai Indians, led by Sachin Tendulkar. The batting power of Kieron Pollard and Rohit Sharma is backed up with the bowling class of Lasith Malinga and Harbhjan Singh. Mumbai Indians disappointed in the first two editions of the IPL but they looked to be getting it right last year and I fancy them to be the biggest threat to Chennai Super Kings this year.

I will be backing both Chennai and Mumbai to win outright this year and also having an interest in the tournament top batsman and top bowler markets. My suggested bets therefore are:

In The Outright Market:

BACK Chennai Super Kings to win for 5 points @ 7.0 at Corals

BACK Mumbai Indians to win for 3 points @ 6.5 at Stan James

In the Tournament Top Batsman Market:

BACK Murali Vijay for 1 point @ 26.0 at Stan James

In the Tournament Top Bowler Market:

BACK Lasith Malinga for 1 point @ 15.0 at Betfair

Bigjoe