The two biggest franchises in the Indian Premier League do battle on Friday afternoon when the Chennai Super Kings play host to the Mumbai Indians in a match which could very well be repeated in the play-offs next month.
Chennai go into the match on top of the table and a win here will secure their postseason berth but the Mumbai Indians are only four points behind them and have a game in hand so a win here could open the door to them topping the table.
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Chennai Super Kings
For the first time in a while, the Chennai Super Kings’ batsmen delivered the goods for them in their last match. A couple of players who had shown little form in the event to date came to life and that felt like a big moment. In the grand scheme of things. If their batsmen can keep on delivering then they are going to go very close to making a successful defence of their title.
In fairness to their batsmen they have had some pretty ordinary wickets to play on in Chepauk so they deserve a little bit of slack for that but they need to maintain their form now. There hasn’t been anything wrong with the Chennai bowling attack all season so if their batsmen can maintain their form then they look the team to beat.
Mumbai Indians
Just when it looked like the Mumbai Indians were going to hit top form and launch a major assault on the top of the table, they slipped up against the Rajasthan Royals last time out. That was a surprising outcome but might just have acted as a nice wake up call for them at just the right time. If they can launch a burst of form from here on in then they should still give themselves two chances in the postseason.
It was the bowlers who struggled for the Indians in that previous match. They couldn’t contain Ajinkya Rahane and paid the ultimate price for it. I wouldn’t think there is reason to be too concerned with that though because you can count their poor bowling efforts on one hand usually. I would expect them to come out fighting with the ball here.
Team News
You wouldn’t think the Chennai Super Kings’ side will change for this match. They tend to be using Harbhajan Singh at home only and so he is likely to remain in the side here. I’m expecting an unchanged team barring a late injury.
Mumbai Indians have signed Beuran Hendricks to replace Alzarri Joseph and he is available for them if he is selected. He might just be given a little longer to acclimatise though so Mumbai could also be unchanged.
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Betting
It has become so hard to bet on the matches in Chepauk because until it starts nobody knows what the wicket is going to do. They have been slow and low for much of the campaign and then every now and again a road pops up so it is hard to know who going to be best suited by the conditions. With that in mind I’ll play a side market for an interest here.
Krunal Pandya is likely to be moved up the order for the Mumbai Indians to negate the spin of Imran Tahir and Ravi Jadeja and having scored 40 odd in the reverse meeting and with his own left arm spin likely to be on show and receptive in these conditions he should be a key feature in the contest. This isn’t a match I want too much interest in to be fair but I’ll throw a coin or two at Krunal to be the match of the match.
Tips
Back K.Pandya Man of the Match for a 1/10 stake at 17.00 with 888sport
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