IPL Betting: Mumbai Indians v Royal Challengers Bangalore

Royal Challangers Bangalore are one of the form teams in IPL 6 and will be confident of victory against Mumbai on Saturday

Chris Gayle lit up the IPL with an unforgettable innings of 175 this week and Matt Harris believes the Jamaican is the key to further success for RCB when they travel to Mumbai on Saturday.

Mumbai Indians v Royal Challengers Bangalore
Start Time: 15:30 BST
TV: Live on ITV4 and ITV.com

Mumbai Indians

Mumbai sit just outside of the playoff places with four wins from a possible seven but victory over the Knight Riders last time out keeps the squad on course for the knockout rounds.

There have clearly been issues with the balance of the side and in particular, the top of the order where the partnership of Ricky Ponting and Sachin Tendulkar may have delighted the media but had failed to make any tangible impact.

Ponting sat out the previous game and, after Dwayne Smith came into the side and made a match winning 62, there's unlikely to be any changes to Mumbai's starting XI. With Kieron Pollard and Rohit Sharma also hitting form, the Indians look strong going into the second half of the groups while Mitchell Johnson and Lasith Malinga are combining well to keep opposing totals in check.

Royal Challengers Bangalore

RCB may not be a one man team but they are indebted to Chris Gayle whose power hitting has propelled them towards the top of the table. The West Indian's incredible knock of 175 this week means that he now has 432 runs from eight games at an average of 108.00 and if the Royal Challengers make it all the way to the final, few would be surprised to see Gayle rack up a thousand runs in the tournament.

Even if Ricky Ponting doesn't take to the field, he will working on a plan to get Gayle early but how do you bowl to him? England's bowlers bounced him out in last year's one-off international T20 but with umpires strict on the short ball in this IPL, it's a ploy that requires no margin of error.

Gayle aside, RCB have Virat Kohli at number three in the leading run scorers list and with useful contributions from AB De Villiers and Tillakaratne Dilshan, the men from Bangalore are unlikely to miss out on the playoffs and there is enough depth in batting to take the points in this match.

Venue and Conditions

Only two games have been played at the Wankhede Stadium so far and Mumbai have won both of them by taking first knock. The average first innings score is 196 and while that is impressively high, who knows how many the Indians will need against Gayle?

It looks set to be a high scoring ground throughout the tournament so a minimum target is likely to be 180 and as far as the conditions are concerned, the forecast is for  a low thirties centigrade maximum without a single hint of cloud cover.

Match Odds

The market is close but RCB are slight favourites at 1.8910/11 while the Mumbai Indians are at 2.0811/10. Without wanting to overstate the Gayle factor, so much of this does depend on his wicket and if Mumbai can get him early, they will look generous as the outside bet.

However, while we won't see another 175 from Gayle in this match, he should contribute enough, with the help of Kohli and others, to take the points.

Mumbai Top Batsman

Ponting and Tendulkar are quoted as joint favourites at 4.3100/30 but with one unlikely to play and the other hopelessly out of form, Kieron Pollard is my pick at around 7.06/1. Pollard will look to match Gayle in this match and he should come in early enough here to give the return.

Bangalore Top Batsman

No surprise to see Gayle as clear favourite at 2.265/4 but his performances mean that Virat Kohli's contributions are being overlooked. The skipper has 333 runs at 47.57 in IPL 6 and looks a solid selection at 3.7511/4.

Recommended Bet
Back Bangalore to win at 1.8910/11