Cricket betting tips: IPL – Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Punjab Kings preview and best bets
The morning game in the IPL on Sunday sees Sunrisers Hyderabad welcome Punjab Kings, and cricket expert Richard Mann is backing a home win.
Cricket betting tips: Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Punjab Kings
1pt Sunrisers Hyderabad to win by 10 wickets or 90+ runs at 22/1 (Betfair Sportsbook, Paddy Power)
1pt Sunrisers Hyderabad to win by 9 wickets or 81-90 runs at 17/1 (Betfair Sportsbook, Paddy Power)
IPL 2024 has been a record-breaking tournament, with big runs and big scores becoming the norm, new ground broken seemingly every week. In trying to make sense of all the chaos, there is no doubt that Sunrisers Hyderabad have been at the forefront of much of it.
Under Pat Cummins’ captaincy, this franchise has been transformed, now playing an ultra-aggressive style of cricket and with the bat in particular, scoring at an outrageous rate.
We had signs of that way back in their opening match of the campaign when they very nearly chased down 209 against Kolkata Knight Riders, and only a few days later they posted 277-3 against Mumbai Indians as Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma and Heinrich Klaasen went berserk. The template had been set.
There has been the odd setback along the way, but scores of 287-3 batting first against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, 266-7 against Delhi Capitals and 201-3 against Rajasthan Royals highlights just what this team is about: fearless, dynamic batting and limitless possibilities.
It has helped that the wicket on their home ground has been much better to bat on this year, presumably at the request of Cummins and head coach Dan Vettori who have understood that in order to get the best out of Head and Klaasen et al, a good, true surface is required.
Batting first and setting big totals appears to be Sunrisers’ preferred modus operandi, but they can chase, too, as demonstrated by their brutal takedown of Lucknow Super Giants’ score of 165 just a few weeks ago, Head and Sharma galloping to the victory target in only 9.4 overs. The run-rate in that chase was 17.27.
Head has proven to be a terrific signing, passing 500 runs for the season and striking at 201.89. Sharma, with 401 runs and counting at a strike-rate of 205.64, has been equally impressive. With Klaasen and Nitish Reddy also going well, and plenty more power in the middle-order, this really is a fearsome batting line-up.
The bowling isn’t quite as hot, but Cummins has done a terrific job along with experienced heads Thangarasu Natarajan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and now up to third in the table, they really should have too many guns for Punjab Kings here.
Punjab currently sit second bottom following another poor showing. For all there has been the occasional high, they have generally been found wanting in a season in which new boundaries have been broken.
Even when they beat the Royals last time out, that came in a low-scoring match, and when conceding 241-7 against RCB previously, Punjab didn’t get close to even making 200 on a good pitch. Prior to that, they only scored 139-9 against Chennai Super Kings.
If this becomes an arm wrestle, I just don’t see Punjab competing. The one potential caveat is that this is a day game, meaning there is a chance the pitch in Hyderabad, without the dew effect, is dry and takes spin, but I can’t believe Cummins and his team aren’t asking for another flat deck at home.
In which case, another big Sunrisers win could be on the cards, meaning the margin betting available with Betfair Sportsbook and Paddy Power is very appealing.
I’ll be betting the top bands, SUNRISERS TO WIN BY 10 WICKETS OR 90+ RUNS at 22/1, and SUNRISERS TO WIN BY NINE WICKETS OR 81-90 RUNS at 17/1.
Preview published at 0645 BST on 18/05/24
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