Royal Challengers Bangalore v Delhi Capitals Betting Tips & Predictions

Royal Challengers Bangalore Team News

RCB suffered a surprise defeat at the hands of SRH on Thursday. Surprise for many reasons. There’s the fact that the Sunrisers are bottom of the table and the fact that it was a total they really should have chased.

Yes, they lost early wickets including Virat Kohli but Glenn Maxwell once again turned the game on its head with a brilliant 40 off 25; an even better effort when you consider it was a tough pitch.

But the villain was Devdutt Padikkal. His slow strike rate made the chase trickier than it should have been and to make matters worse, he ran out Maxwell when the Aussie was on course to win them the game.

So that all means that they can’t finish Top 2 even if they win because they’re miles behind on net run rate.

But they’ll want to win here so they go into the Playoffs with some momentum.

Delhi Capitals Team News

Whatever happens from here, DC can be proud of their achievements.

They did really well last year to finish second in the Group Stage and make the final and this year they have already gone one better by winning the Group Stages rather than finishing second.

CSK lost on Thursday so they can’t be caught, whatever happens here. Not that it makes much difference because finishing first or second is the same in the Playoffs.

There have been quite a few players who have been particularly good.

With the bat Shikhar Dhawan has had a lean patch but has mostly been very consistent this season.  Rishabh Pant has mostly been good, too.

Axar Patel and Kagiso Rabada have been excellent with the ball, taking wickets and keeping the runs down.

But Avesh Khan has been even better, taking 22 wickets; only Harshal Patel has more with 29 but Khan’s economy rate is considerably better.

He’s going at 7.14 compared to Patel, who is costing 8.4 runs an over.

They look the real deal and this is their best chance ever of winning their first IPL.

Venue & conditions

We’re in Dubai for this one. Scores have been lower here than at the other grounds and some teams have struggled to get to 135.  If you’re playing the first innings runs market, consider going under 135 runs irrespective of who’s batting first.

Royal Challengers Bangalore v Delhi Capitals Winner Prediction

Recommended Bet: Back Delhi to win @ 2.02 with Pure Win

Why on earth are Delhi outsiders here? They’re the ones who have topped the Group and been the best side all tournament.

And they may be behind on head to head but they’ve had the better of things over the last couple of years, winning four of the last five.

RCB have become over-reliant on Maxwell with the bat and may not even be in a Playoff position if it hadn’t been for his constant bail-outs. One of these days he might struggle and so might they.

They’ll also be feeling a bit low after that loss to SRH, while Delhi will be going into it in high spirits.

By the way, why not check out the Pure Win review – this betting site has the best winner odds on cricket!

RCB vs DC Hot Bet

Recommended Bet: Back Glenn Maxwell to be RCB Top  Batsman @ 5.0 with Betway

We just can’t get away from Maxwell but when he’s available at odds of 5.0 to be RCB top batsman, there’s no reason why we should.

He top-scored in three games in a row with scores of 56, 50 and 57 respectively and in the last match fell just one run short of the eventual winner Padikkal.

If Padikkal hadn’t run him out, he would have won it anyway.

He’s clearly in the form of his life while all the other big names- Kohli, Padikkal, de Villiers- look somewhat out of form. So it’s an easy choice to make at such big odds.

Royal Challengers Bangalore v Delhi Capitals fun facts

Let’s round things off with some fun facts ahead of the game.

• RCB won this match by just one run when they played earlier this season after de Villiers scored 75.
• Harshal Patel (29) and Yuzvendra Chahal (15) have 44 wickets between them for RCB. The rest of the team have just 37 between them.
• Axar Patel and Anrich Nortje have superb economy rates for the season. Patel’s is 6.05 and Nortje’s is 5.5.