In the 15th game of the Indian Premier League the Deccan Chargers will take on the Kings XI Punjab at the Rajiv Gandhi stadium in Hyderabad. This will be an 8.00pm local time start and will be a home game for the Chargers.
Deccan v Punjab odds:
Both sides come into the game with a win under their belts, their first in this edition of the IPL. The confidence will be higher than otherwise and most importantly, there is a good chance for a high-quality encounter in the offing.
Punjab (6/5 at
Paddy Power) shocked the more fancied Chennai Super Kings thanks to the Paul Valthaty-special while Deccan (8/11 at
Stan James) had won their first ever home game at Hyderabad when they beat Bangalore rather easily. Both the sides are being led by wicket-keeper-batsmen, and will look to notch up their second win.
Ground and Pitch:
The pitch has so far been conducive to the pace bowling, which is why the decision to play a pace bowler in Manpreet Gony ahead of the bigger-ticket spinner Pragyan Ojha was an intelligent move by the captain Kumar Sangakkara in the Bangalore game.
Player News:
Deccan Chargers may not change things around and go in with the same eleven that had beaten the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Bharat Chipli (11/2 at
Paddy Power) was the star performer for the side in the previous game and it was a surprise that he did not win the man of the match award. On the other hand, there were key innings from captain Sangakkara (11/4 at
Stan James) and the new-comer Sunny Sohal (4/1 at
Paddy Power), both of whom chipped with vital 30s to guide the team to a match-winning 175.
One senses that a big knock is due from the bat of Sangakkara, while the other foreign batsman, JP Duminy (11/2 at
Paddy Power) deserves a bat higher up.
Kings XI Punjab will understand well that to expect Paul Valthaty (4/1 at
Stan James) to explode in the manner he did against Chennai may be rather fanciful thinking. However, a half-century from Adam Gilchrist (4/1 at
SkyBet) may not be too wishful and after two successive failures, the Punjab captain would have shaken some of the rust off his bat.
It was a good decision to shift Shaun Marsh (4/1 at
SkyBet) to the number three position but he needs to quickly get into the mode that had seen him win the Orange cap in 2008. Interestingly, beyond these top three, the others require cameos down the order but Abhishek Nayar (8/1 at
Stan James) has been incapable so far.
Prediction:
Deccan should win this one at home given their superior bowling attack.
