IPL Betting: Kolkata Knight Riders v Delhi Daredevils

Gambhir leads KKR

The IPL is back and the 2012 champions begin their defence at Eden Gardens against one of the favourites on Wednesday. Ed Hawkins previews the tournament opener

Kolkata Knight Riders v Delhi Daredevils
Start time: 14.30GMT
TV: live on ITV4

Kolkata
The champions begin the defence of their crown with the aim of emulating the Chennai Super Kings who won back-to-back tournaments from 2010. Their gun player is Sunil Narine, who was the second-highest wicket-taker last season. KKR must do without Brendon McCullum and James Pattinson for the opener, however. McCullum has a hamstring niggle and Pattinson is resting. Both have yet to join up with the squad. England's Eoin Morgan could replace McCullum.

Delhi Daredevils
Delhi topped the points table last season but failed to make the final. Indeed, they have never made the last two and are considered to be the IPL's biggest underachievers. They are not at their strongest for this one. Kevin Pietersen has been ruled out for the tournament and Jesse Ryder, the Kiwi hitter, will probably join him after being assaulted in New Zealand. They have signed the New South Wales captain and left-hand batsman Ben Rohrer as a replacement for Ryder. Much relies on the batting prowess of Mahela Jaywardene, Virender Sehwag and David Warner. Varun Aaron, the impressive young pacer, is out for the season with a stress fracture.

First-innings runs
Here are the first-innings scores from full 20-over knocks in 2012 at Eden Gardens: 131-134-190-150-181-158. That is an average of 157. There is the potential for rain, however, just like this fixture last season. It may pay to go under 150.

Match odds
Kolkata enjoyed two victories out of three last year in the head-to-head, including a win in the first qualifying match. They are 1.9010/11 to get their campaign off to a fast start and that looks pretty good value considering Delhi are not at their strongest. Their bowling looks a little weak. Ashish Nehra, Umesh Yadav and Irfan Pathan are only just feeling their way back after injury. Delhi are 2.0621/20. Jaywardene has also been struggling with an injury. Normally we would advise picking the outsiders with rain around but KKR should be about 1.804/5 here.

Top Kolkata runscorer
Yusuf pathan top scored in the last meeting between these two and goes off at around 7.006/1. Gautam Gambhir and Jacques Kallis are the two vying for favouritism at 3.505/2 and 4.003/1 respectively. Morgan is 5.004/1.

Top Delhi runscorer
Expect a Delhi top three of Jayawardene-Warner-Sehwag. With the latter two both trading sub 4.003/1 it is clear Jayawardene is the value at 4.707/2 if he opens the batting as we suspect he will.

Recommended bet
KKR at 1.9010/11