CRICKET BETTING: Live On ITV4: Sat and Sun 15:30 Mumbai and Chennai come head to head in Sunday’s final and Deccan face Bangalore for 3rd place honours on Saturday. Compare all IPL odds.
Grand Final: Sunday’s IPL Grand Final pitches Chennai Super Kings against Mumbai Indians, 3rd and 1st respectively in the regular season. Mumbai will be looking forward to playing in front of a home crowd and are justifiably 5/6 favs to win with Stan James. Chennai can be backed at 6/5 with Ladbrokes.
Mumbai were easily the best side in the IPL regular season, the formidable Sachin Tendulkar top scoring throughout the season. Tendulkar is 9/4 with Boylesports to be top scorer for Mumbai. To add balance, Harbajhan has been in fine form with the ball, coming in as the second highest wicket taker.
For Chennai, Muralitharan will always pose a serious threat, despite not being at his best. A lot of hope will be pinned on Suresh Raina, a highly capable no.3, to top score, and he is 7/2 with totesport to be top scorer for Chennai.
3rd Place Palyoff: Deccan Chargers face Royal Challengers Bangalore in the bronze medal playoffs after both teams were comfortably beaten in their semi final matches. Stan James are going with 4/5 on Bangalore while Victor Chandler have 6/5 about Deccan. This may be a reaction to Deccan’s somewhat weak performance against Chennai in the semi final but perhaps an over reaction against the team who finished 2nd in the league.
Deccan will look to Symonds to blast a big score (9/2 top scorer for Deccan, Stan James) but their main weapon is top wicket taker Pragyan Ojha, who they will use to try and stifle the Bangalore attack.
Kevin Pietersen has hardly set the IPL alight but he and his team will want to set a high score. Deccan have only posted 2 scores in the top 30 team high scores of the tournament, so a decent Bangalore knock will cause problems. Ross Taylor, the 6-blaster Kiwi, is 7/1 with Ladbrokes to top score.