Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians are running away with affairs at the head of the table. Each franchise, at the time of writing, had six wins from eight matches with only two defeats. Two more wins for each of them would surely guarantee a play-off berth.
Yet who will join them in the last four is anyone’s guess at the moment. Everybody else seems to be falling over themselves to disrupt their challenge. It is a curious IPL with two standout teams and the rest very, very average.
Kolkata are 4 with Sportingbet for glory while Mumbai currently rank jollies at no better than 3.6 (32Red). There is a major advantage to finishing top. The team that does so gets another bite of the cherry if it loses the first play-off match.
Next best in the betting are Sunrisers Hyderabad, last year’s winners. They are rightful third favourites and it is not a huge leap of faith to now consider them the value at 6.5 with Ladbrokes.
Behind Kolkata, they have the best bowling attack in the league. And given that we strongly believe that it is bowlers who win this tournament instead of batters, they could go close. What goes against them is that darn fine T20 sides win back-to-back tournaments. And it is a real push to call Sunrisers one of those because their batting is not destructive enough at the top of the order.
So that leaves one spot for five teams to fight over. Gujarat Lions are currently bottom of the table and will need to win six of their last seven to stand a chance (eight victories are a minimum required normally to qualify). Just above them are the Delhi Daredevils who have the same number of wins (two) from six games. Gujarat are 21 with Paddy Power.
Before their defeat last time out, we quite fancied them for a charge. That was based on the probability that Dwayne Bravo would return as a stellar all-rounder. But Bravo has been ruled out with injury and with him goes the wager.
Bangalore, after the washout against Sunrisers, need to win six in a row to get there. It’s not insurmountable as they always leave themselves with it all do. Last year they needed a similar run and made it to the final. But the 13 with Betway is not big enough.
Kings XI and Pune are 15 (Paddy Power) and 11 (Betway). Kings will need five wins from seven and Pune four from six.
What we know about these teams struggling is that they suffer from a horrible imbalance in the squad. Kings, Pune and Gujarat have been hopeless in the field and are at least a bowler short. In Kings’ case, they are two short. As for Bangalore they can’t bat or bowl, bizarrely.
The odd one out is Delhi. They have a terrific bowling attack and their batting is exciting. The problem is that it is young and inexperienced so they are really suffering in chases.
But given our earlier remarks about how bowlers are key, the 15 with green listed bookmaker Paddy Power about a late charge might appeal.
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