INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE: Our cricket tipster The Edge previews Rajasthan Royals v Kolkata Knight Riders on day 12 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:

Rajasthan Royals are back in action quickly after an incredible run chase on Sunday! They chased down 223/2 with balls to spare in the end against Kings XI Punjab. They will have to adapt to different conditions here though – Sharjah has an excellent wicket for batting and short boundaries too. High scores were expected there before the tournament even started and although it was an incredible win for Rajasthan, different tactics will be needed today.

This will be the first experience of Dubai for KKR, who have played their two games at Abu Dhabi. They were very impressive when beating Hyderabad in their last game, however it would be fair to say Hyderabad didn’t perform at their best. KKR bowled poorly against Mumbai Indians in their opening game, and they can’t bowl like that today against this Rajasthan team!

Morgan came good for KKR with 42 runs off 29 balls against Hyderabad, and looking at their batting line-up they are relying on him and a handful of others as their domestic players aren’t as strong as the other sides. Rajasthan have scored 226 and 217 in their last two innings! We probably won’t see 200+ today, but they are in-form, and we did see a 201 tie here on Monday!


WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:

As I noted above, we had a 201 tie here Monday and that has been two 200+ scores here from the last three games. The first innings scores at Dubai have been: 157/8 (match tied), 163/5 (won by 10 runs), 206/3 (won by 97 runs), 175/3 (won by 44 runs) and 201/3 (match tied). The pitch looked good for batting on Monday, although we did have dew and there were plenty of issues for the bowlers – we saw a lot of towels etc trying to dry the ball. RCB bowling isn’t great either, so I would expect 200 to be defend today if anyone scored batting first. Also, we haven’t had a winning chase here yet – although granted we’ve had two tied games! Once again the weather is set fair.


RECOMMENDED BET:

I must say, I expected to see Rajasthan favourites here. I’m very surprised to see them trading at 2.06. I take on board that they have had pretty easy batting conditions in Sharjah and now as they move to Dubai, they will have to change. However, that was an incredible run chase against Punjab and although their bowlers conceded plenty of runs too, they have a nice group who will go well with more helpful conditions. Jofra Archer can be the star here, and I think Rajasthan are a cracking value bet at 2.06.

The Edge Says:
Three points win Rajasthan Royals to beat Kolkata Knight Riders at 2.06 with BETDAQ Exchange.

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


IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:

The more games we see at Dubai, the more important looking for dew becomes. We clearly have very different bowling conditions when we see dew – it seems very difficult to bowl. Dubai is a decent sized ground, but we had a lot of sixes here on Monday as the bowlers struggled to hit their targets. Clearly this is a very good in-running strategy to look for trades on the batting side towards the end of the innings when there is a healthy dew on the ground.

The Rajasthan Royals batting line-up is in great touch too; so if we see dew while KKR are bowling I would be happy to have a trade on Rajasthan. Although we have had two ties, both games seen dew on the ground and we’ve had no winning chase here – so factor that in. Of course the market will know this – it seems the sweet spot is to get on the batting team in the last five overs of the first innings and trade out at the break. Then look for momentum trades in the second innings if we have dew.


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