INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE: Our cricket tipster The Edge previews Royal Challengers Bangalore v Mumbai Indians on day 10 of the IPL. The preview includes a recommended BETDAQ bet.


The Edge has been a professional cricket trader for over 12 years, and we are delighted to have his columns on BETDAQ Tips. He provides his best bets on a points scale between 1 and 5, with 5 being a rare max bet.

Because we see so much action in-running on cricket, he will also provide some in-running strategies that could develop in-play and lead to some excellent value bets. The Edge covers all forms of cricket: Test Matches, ODI’s and T20’s but his favourite competition is the Indian Premier League each season.


MATCH OVERVIEW:

The Indian Premier League returns to Dubai on Monday for a new week of drama! It’s fair to say that RCB will want to quickly move on from their experience here last week after losing to Kings XI Punjab by 97 runs. It’ll be hard to top a bigger loss than that in the tournament! Their bowling has to be a major worry; even though they failed so badly with the bat, it was the bowlers who put the team under immense pressure at the end of the innings.

Mumbai Indians will be very confident heading into this one. They put up an impressive performance to beat KKR by 49 runs in Abu Dhabi, and this will be their first experience of conditions at Dubai. RCB have played their two games here with one win and one loss so they will know what to expect.

RCB undoubtedly have the talent to beat any side in the tournament, but you have to worry what they can achieve once Finch, Kohli and de Villiers are out. The rest of their batting is extremely light and this causes two issues – the main stars aren’t stupid; they know what is behind them so they bat a little too cautious and leave runs out there. Or they try to take extra risks to score quicker and fail. Steyn conceded 57 runs off his 4 overs last week, he needs to lead the bowlers better than that.


WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:

This will be the fifth game here and so far we have yet to see a successful chase. Could this be a side of things to come for the whole tournament? We have had decent first innings scores; 157/8 (game tied), 163/5 (won by 10 runs), 206/3 (won by 97 runs) and 175/3 (won by 44 runs). I think the key is to keep wickets in hand for a late dash; that has been the deciding factor. Nearly every game has had that pattern. I think a par score is probably 170, and I’d like to see a side try to chase that to see where we are. It’s highly doubtful we’ll see 180+ chased here. Once again, we’re set fair with the weather.


RECOMMENDED BET:

It’s difficult to be overly confident pre-off on this one as both sides have some very impressive players. I have to side with Mumbai Indians at the odds however, and will top up if they bat first. RCB need their stars to fire otherwise they have little in reserve and while Mumbai are a little light compared to last season, they have enough over all talent in their side to cope with this RCB team.

The Edge Says: Two points win Mumbai Indians to beat Royal Challengers Bangalore at 1.82 with BETDAQ Exchange

Extra Advice:
Another Two points win Mumbai Indians if they bat first at 1.75 or bigger after the toss. (four points win total)

View the market here -> http://bit.ly/BDQRoyMum


IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:

Based on what we have seen so far at Dubai, you’d want to be on the team batting first. I noted in the CSK v Delhi Capitals game here that the ideal time to open a trade on the batting side was in the last five overs of the first innings. I haven’t seen anything to change my mind; indeed I’d be very confident if they had plenty of wickets in hand.

RCB are clearly shown that they need Finch, Kohli or de Villiers to bat through the innings, otherwise they aren’t getting many runs. Once those three were out, I would be fully against RCB – if Mumbai set an average target it could pay handsomely to support Mumbai to defend it once the three stars are gone for example.


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