Double your winnings on double-header day by placing these three bets from Kolkata vs Delhi

BySky247, SportsCafe Editor

04/29/2021

Double-header days are always fun, but they become super fun when it’s the Kolkata Knight Riders taking on the Delhi Capitals in one of the two games. A victory on Thursday will be huge for either side, but KKR and DC are not the only ones who can win big tomorrow.

Kolkata’s score in first six overs under 45.5 @ 1.90

For KKR, in the powerplay this season, it has been a story of two halves. In the first half, the first three games of the season, they brutalized opponents with the new ball while in the second, they’ve surrendered to the opposition bowlers. KKR averaged 50.66 in the first six overs in the first three games of the season, but that averaged dropped to a mere 37.33 across games 4, 5 and 6. After starting off with 50, 45 and 57, KKR ended up scoring 45, 25 and 42 in their last three games and have not passed the magic number, 45.5, in each of their last three encounters. They will be up against a DC side who are good up-front and have conceded just 44.16 runs on average in the first six overs. In their last game, which was incidentally in Ahmedabad, DC only leaked 36 runs in the powerplay. The Ahmedabad wicket, which has been tacky, has also been tough to score on, and across four innings at the venue thus far, no side has managed to score over 45.5 in the powerplay. KKR scoring under 45.5 in the first six overs looks like an inevitability.

Shubman Gill to score under 23.5 runs @ 1.90

Make no mistake, Shubman Gill is still one of the best young batters in the world, and it pains us to be asking people to bet against him. But such has been his wretched form that not betting against the youngster is starting to feel like a missed opportunity. Across the first six games this season, Gill has averaged a hideous 14.83 which, honestly, is tail-ender level. 9, 11, 0, 21, 33 and 15 read his scores for the season and only once all season has he scored more than 23.5. This is not just an IPL thing, though, as Gill, dating back to the second England Test, has scored above 23.5 just once in 11 innings. Why it’ll be tough for him tomorrow is he’ll be up against leg-spin and express pace, two bowler-types he’s struggled against. In his IPL career, Gill averages 23 and 20 versus leg-spin and express pace respectively, and has been dismissed by those bowlers a staggering 17 times. Since last season, this average has further reduced to 16.7 and 17.4 and this season alone, he’s averaged a mere 5.5 versus leggies, being dismissed by them twice. Mishra is a trump card for DC, and it is to be noted that the veteran dismissed GIll in the first H2H clash last season. The odds are stacked against Gill and it unfortunately looks certain that he’ll fail to get going on Thursday.

Delhi to hit under 6.5 sixes @ 1.75

Delhi Capitals are a lot of things but one thing they’re not is a good six-hitting side. In six matches this season, they’ve hit a mere 19 sixes, which is comfortably the lowest of any side. In other words, DC have hit just 3.16 six per season this year, which is 3.5 sixes fewer than what this bet suggests. The reason for this is they have a team full of boundary-hitters; batsmen who prefer to hit along the ground. This was the case in IPL 2020, too, as in the group stages last year, only SRH hit fewer sixes than Delhi’s 74. That was at least an acceptable figure, but this season their numbers look appalling. 4, 3, 1, 6, 0 and 5 are the number of sixes they’ve hit per match and four games ago they became the first ever team in IPL history to not hit a six at the Wankhede. In fact, this season, never have Delhi hit more than 6.5 sixes in a single game. Taking all numbers into consideration, backing DC to hit under 6.5 sixes is perhaps the best investment one can make.