The Bangladesh Premier League begins on Friday. It promises to be a popular betting event with plenty of international stars involved and, rather nicely, a solid trend to exploit. But more on that a bit later.
The Comilla Victorians are the defending champions, having beaten the Barisal Bulls in last year’s final. The Victorians get an 8 quote at Stan James. The Bulls are the same price with the same firm.
It is the Chittagong Vikings who are jollies. Second in the betting are the Dhaka Dynamite at 5 (Marathon) although Stan James makes them 3.5 jollies. This means they are actually the shortest team in the tournament.
So what is the appeal with regard to the Vikings and Dynamite? Well, the Vikings have signed Chris Gayle for the final five matches. He was with the Bulls last time and he will be expected to fire them to the last two.
But it is Dhaka who are really star-studded. Kumar Sangakkara, Andre Russell, Mahela Jayawardene, Dwayne Bravo, Evin Lewis and Ravi Bopara give them a wealth of options.
Rangpur Riders are 5.5 at William Hill. They have done poor business by signing Shahid Afridi. But their capture of Northants’ Richard Gleeson is inspired.
There are two new franchises. The Khulna Tigers and Rajshahi Kings are behind the eight-ball in terms of impressive overseas players. The latter can boast Darren Sammy (and that’s about it). They are 8 (Stan James) and 9 (Marathon) respectively.
The real edge for punters, however, is unlikely to be found in deciphering which teams is the best balanced. It will be a knowledge that the toss is key in these games.
Last year 21 from 34 matches were won by the chaser. In nine games the chase came to as short as 1.20 or less. These are significant trends.
Below we’ve checked the records of each team batting first and second to try to give you a better idea of who can and can’t be trusted on the toss.
Barisal, for example, were brilliant when chasing but utterly hopeless at batting first. You will also spot that Chittagong will have to improve with bat and ball to make the jump to winners.
BPL 2015-16 records of sides batting first or second
Rangpur
Bat 1st WWLLWL
Bat 2nd WLWWWL
Comilla
Bat 1st LLWWW
Bat 2nd WWWWWLW
Dhaka
Bat 1st WLLWLL
Bat 2nd WLWLL
Barisal
Bat 1st LLLWLLWL
Bat 2nd WWWWW
Chittagong
Bat 1st LWLLLLL
Bat 2nd LWL
Calculators
