Cricket Indian Premier League Prediction

Chennai Super Kings vs Mumbai Indians - Match Preview

🏏 6 May 2023 - 14:00 GMT +0

The 38th “El Clásico” of the Indian Premier League opens the first-weekend program of May with Chennai Super Kings still occupying a playoff position despite failing to win any of their last three matches (L2, NR1). Five wins from six matches prior to that included a very comfortable seven-wicket win over long-time rivals Mumbai Indians that was dominated by Ajinkya Rahane (61 from 27) and Ravindra Jadeja (3/20).

The recent history between these sides have been quite even-handed (4-3 to Chennai since Mumbai won all four H2Hs in 2019), taking the all-time record to 21-16 in Mumbai’s favour when including the Champions League. Following their loss to Punjab, Chennai is yet to claim Chepauk’s infamous ‘fortress’ status owing to their 2-2 record at home this year, which doesn’t bode well for them when considering Mumbai has won each of the last five H2Hs to be played at the venue.

The score of 125/7 they held Lucknow to from 19.2 overs prior to the game being washed out was more of a reflection on the state of the pitch than their bowling, which is still conceding 8.98 runs per over this season - a rate that is even worse during the first six overs (9.63rpo). Deepak Chahar made his long-awaited return in their most recent outing but returned by far the most expensive figures of the innings after his last three overs went for 36 runs. There have not been any updates in recent weeks on the progress of Ben Stokes’ injury, though with an overall batting run rate of 9.5rpo in 2023 their batters have done well in his absence.

After the showing of their first two matches, in which they took a total of just five wickets (including three in the loss to Chennai), it appeared that Mumbai was destined for a long season at the bottom of the standings. They still haven’t fixed their economy rate (a league-worst 9.83rpo) or sixes conceded per game (9.11), whilst the highly-priced Jofra Archer has been their greatest liability when he’s even able to play (2/166 at 10.37rpo in 2023). Still, a top-heavy batting order has stood up with consecutive 200+ run chases as well as another score of 201 in a narrow loss to Punjab.

Five wins from their last seven games since the reverse H2H means they’re in much better shape this time around and need to be taken very seriously, particularly if their bowling can get themselves together and captain Rohit Sharma can rediscover his best at a venue that has been kind to him in recent years.

⚡ Players to watch: Two of the three top scorers in Chepauk IPL games over the last three years will hope to light up the night sky with a deluge of sixes. Chennai opener Devon Conway has three half-centuries and a 47 from his four home innings this season (47, 50, 77*, 92*) at a scoring rate of nine runs per over. Whilst not as galactic, out-of-sorts Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma scored 30+ runs in four of his last five IPL innings in Chennai at an average of 40.

📋 Stat attack: Chennai conceded the most powerplay runs in seven of their last eight games at Chepauk.

• The Super Kings have scored at least 200 runs in each of the last four innings in which they batted first.
• The average first innings score at Chepauk since the start of 2021 is just 162.
• Ravindra Jadeja has taken 2+ wickets in three of his four home games this year.
• Jadeja has dismissed Suryakumar Yadav three times in T20s at an average of 14.67 and an economy rate of just 4.7rpo.
• Piyush Chawla had career figures of 6/77 against Ambati Rayudu in the T20s.

Delhi Capitals vs Royal Challengers Bangalore - Match Preview

🏏 6 May 2023 - 18:00 GMT +0

The 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL) brings up its half-century during the Saturday double-header when Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) contest the 50th match of the season at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. If eight wins are to be the minimum requirement to get through to the playoffs, just as it was in 2022 when RCB finished fourth with an 8-6 record, Delhi will face the requirement of needing five consecutive victories to continue chasing their inaugural trophy.

Occupying last place on the table is in itself enough to suggest that is an unlikely prospect, but the motivations of their remaining opposition are also going to add further difficulty to the task at hand. Following this meeting with RCB will be two matches each against Chennai Super Kings and Punjab Kings, both of whom had a 5-4 record alongside RCB heading into the Wednesday doubleheader.

But after manufacturing the least likely of wins, away from home against defending champions Gujarat, they have the right to believe that anything is possible. It was just the second occasion an IPL side won after conceding five wickets in the power play, but they would no doubt remain concerned about leaking 2.33 wickets per powerplay at a rate of just 7.69 runs per over. Captain David Warner, the bedrock of their top order, still hasn’t been able to find his groove, and now his relatively slow half-centuries in the first month of the campaign have fizzled out into mostly insignificant scores.

The Capitals are not only going to have to end a run of four consecutive losses to RCB dating back to the start of 2021, but their overall home record against RCB (W3 L6) leaves a lot to be desired. The visitors should have every reason to believe they can tilt that even further in their favour after picking up victories against Lucknow and Punjab in their two most recent trips, which will serve them well ahead of four consecutive away games. Lest they want their regular season finale at home against Gujarat to be a ‘must win’, RCB will have to continue picking up regular road victories.

The glamour franchise was once again shown to be too reliant on their top three with only openers Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis reaching a score of 20 in their difficult win against Lucknow. Those two, and number three Glenn Maxwell, remain their only players to have either aggregated 100+ runs or have a batting average better than 20 this season so far. Mahipal Lomror (average 15.60) and Dinesh Karthik (12.37), who RCB were depending on to be middle-order accelerators, have both been especially disappointing. The absence of Josh Hazlewood became all the more obvious when he returned with an immediate impact, taking 2/15 from three overs including one powerplay wicket. Hazlewood was RCB’s most effective powerplay bowler last year, taking seven wickets at 6.84rpo, and alongside Mohammed Siraj (eight powerplay wickets at 5.40rpo this year), could make an insurmountable pairing.

⚡ Key battles: Player switches are common in this competition, but they always add a little extra intrigue. Former Delhi Capitals bowler Harshal Patel has a career haul of 12 wickets from eight matches at Arun Jaitley Stadium, but his average number of wickets per innings against Delhi is just one (ten from ten). He has never dismissed either David Warner or Rilee Rossouw in a T20, conceding a combined 116 runs from just 56 balls bowled.

📋 Stat attack: All but two of the last nine IPL games in Delhi were won by the chasing side.

• RCB have scored the most powerplay runs in all but one of their nine games this year.
• The last six IPL games in Delhi all saw first innings scores of fewer than 175 runs.
• Kuldeep Yadav has taken Glenn Maxwell’s wicket four times in the IPL, but conceded 59 runs from the 18 non-wicket-taking deliveries - that’s 59 runs in three overs!
• Axar Patel batting in Delhi this year: 36, 54, 19*, 29* (138 runs at 69.00, 9.98rpo).
• Virat Kohli has never been dismissed by Ishant Sharma in a T20 (0/79 from 58), whilst Axar Patel has taken Kohli’s wicket just once (1/70 from 62).