It's Mumbai vs Chennai in unfamiliar territory

In a tale of two of the most formidable teams in the history of the tournament, sparks are bound to fly as the Mumbai Indians lock horns with the reigning champions, Chennai Super Kings. Sadly, for both sides, this has so far been a forgettable campaign with the two giants only managing one win between them in 12 attempts in IPL 2022.

Mumbai’s biggest woe has been their failure to conjure a decent opening partnership that has disrupted all the plans that the franchise had ever since the start of the campaign. Ishan Kishan somehow has failed to return the heat that he was taken for with most of his innings borderlining around controlled aggression, a factor that has dented their hunger for the title.

Chennai, on the contrary, is still to figure out their perfect playing eleven and with Ruturaj Gaikwad finding himself in the midst of questionable form this season, somehow the transition from the opening to the middle has been downright bumpy. The worst part about their journey so far has been their bowling department that has leaked too many runs.

With the formidable reputation of both sides exploding in flames, they will be desperately looking for a resolve to bridge the titanic gap between the various departments, that can at least give some shape to their respective journeys in IPL 2022.

Venue Watch:

The pitch is more or less a decent batting surface and as the last couple of games has shown, a total of 180 plus can be a decent one on the cards. The team batting first will have some early struggles given the presence of the additional bounce factor. However, that would eventually fade after the first 5-6 overs. In the last game that RCB played here, the ball was getting stuck on the surface before it came onto the bat. This could signify that the spinners will play an instrumental role in the second innings, making it difficult to chase down a significant total.

Squads:

Chennai Super Kings:

Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni, Moeen Ali, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Dwayne Bravo, Ambati Rayudu, Dwaine Pretorius, Mitchell Santner, Subhranshu Senapati, Adam Milne, Mukesh Choudhary, Prashant Solanki, C Hari Nishaanth, N Jagadeesan, Chris Jordan, K Bhagath Varma, Robin Uthappa, Deepak Chahar, KM Asif, Tushar Deshpande, KM Asif, Shivam Dube, Maheesh Theekshana, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Samarjeet Singh, Devon Conway.

Mumbai Indians:

Rohit Sharma (c), Fabian Allen, Anmolpreet Singh, Jofra Archer, Arshad Khan, Murugan Ashwin, Basil Thampi, Dewald Brevis, Rahul Buddhi, Jasprit Bumrah, Tim David, Ishan Kishan (wk), Aryan Juyal (wk), Mayank Markande, Riley Meredith, Tymal Mills, Kieron Pollard, Ramandeep Singh, Daniel Sams, Sanjay Yadav, Hrithik Shokeen, Arjun Tendulkar, Tilak Varma, Jaydev Unadkat, Suryakumar Yadav. 

Match Details:

Chennai Super Kings vs Mumbai Indians

Venue: Dr. DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai

Date: 21st April 2022

Time: 7:30 PM IST