Bangalore Royal Challengers v Chennai Super Kings



Monday 20th April 2009 15:30 BST
Setanta Sports 1 (15:15-19:00), Setanta Ireland (15:15-19:00 Ireland only)

This one is being billed a Flintoff vs Pietersen as the two most expensive buys of the IPL and England's two highest profile players play for their respective sides.

Bangalore pulled off a bit of a surprise by beating last year's champions, Rajasthan Royals, on the opening day. Having scored a mediocre 133 only made possible thanks to a brilliant knock from Rahul Dravid, Bangalore bowled with good discipline and secured a comfortable victory margin of 75 runs. However, given the poor performance last year’s champs put in during an exhibition match with South African Twenty20 champions last week, Bangalore can thank the luck of the schedule as they could have played Warne's boys at just the right time..

Chennai by contrast had a much tougher day at the office on opening day. Having bowled tightly in the early running, the Super Kings lost their way somewhat and allowed a Tendulkar masterclass see the Mumbai Indians to 165. After losing two early wickets Chennai were never really in the running and slumped to a disappointing 19 run defeat. Andrew Flintoff had a pretty mixed IPL debut it is fair to say as he was pounded for 44 runs off his allocation taking just a single wicket and scoring 24 runs off 23 balls, getting out just as he was getting himself into some batting form. Expect much better from Chennai and Flintoff here.

If these two sides played on the opening day, I would have priced this one (working with a zero margin book) at 1.66 Chennai and 2.5 Mumbai but given the respective performances on opening day I'd be looking more at 1.72 and 2.38. Given my own respective pricings, the 1.83 available on Chennai appeals significantly and as such I recommend you give last year’s beaten finalists another chance.

There is also plenty of appeal in the 2.38 on Chennai to hit the most sixes in this one. Even in their poor performance they hit 6 sixes compared with that of two for Bangalore in their opener. This seems monster value when you consider that everyone was referring to Bangalore as a Test team in last year's IPL!

RECOMMENDATIONS -

4 Points on Chennai Super Kings @ 1.83 (Stan James)
3 Points on Chennai Super Kings to hit most sixes @ 2.38 (Paddy Power)

Crafty Stan