Chennai vs Mumbai, 44th Match, Preview: IPL 2019

Deadline: April 26, 2019 at 8 PM IST

Venue: MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai

Pitch, scores, and conditions

The average first and second innings scores, at Chennai this season, read 138 and 133 respectively. Chennai, however, have won all five matches here, chasing a target thrice and defending a total twice.

The highest total registered is 176. It was attained in a chase against Hyderabad, thanks to Watson’s 96.

The pitch has been getting better for batting with every match. The last match saw only 7 wickets fall in 39.5 overs – the lowest this season. That said, the spinners have had fun here. There is enough turn and zip on offer.

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Probable XI for Chennai: Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni (c & wk), DJ Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Deepak Chahar, Imran Tahir

Probable XI for Mumbai: Quinton de Kock (wk), Rohit Sharma (c), Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Keiron Pollard, Ben Cutting, Krunal Pandya, Rahul Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Lasith Malinga, Mayank Markande

Fantasy team

We have opted for a fantasy cricket team on the basis of players’ impact, recent performances, and credit points.

Note that you can, now, change your team after the toss. You can also check players’ performances in the last 5 matches. Tap on the players’ names to get the data while making your fantasy team. Get to know the latest promotions to earn more.

My XI: MS Dhoni (c & wk), Rohit Sharma, Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Imran Tahir (vc), Jasprit Bumrah, Harbhajan Singh, Rahul Chahar

Points table

Chennai have already gathered 16 points, the average cut-off limit to reach the playoffs. However, they will look to accumulate as many points they can from their remaining three matches to stay atop the table and avoid the eliminator. Mumbai, on the other hand, need to win at least two of their remaining four matches.

Previous encounter

From 50 for 3, Suryakumar (59) and Krunal (42) took Mumbai Indians to 170 for 5, also thanks to Hardik and Pollard’s late fireworks. In reply, Chennai managed a mere 133. Jason Behrendorff, Malinga, and Hardik took 7 wickets between them to registered a comprehensive win over the defending champions.

Players to watch out for

Most teams would have dropped Shane Watson. He did not have a fifty in 10 matches. There is Sam Billings waiting for his opportunity, but Dhoni does not like chopping and changing. Whether they win or lose, he likes to retain his key players – no matter how old they are. Watson repaid the faith with a stunning innings of 96 runs against the quality bowling of Hyderabad. Above all, he reduced Rashid Khan to nothingness. His worst figures before the game read 1 for 27. That day, he conceded 44 runs. In fact, Watson had targeted Rashid in the final of 2018 as well.

Dhoni, however, still aces the batting chart for his team. His 314 innings have come in a mere 7 innings.

For Mumbai, de Kock has done bulk of the scoring. He has been so spectacular that Mumbai’s second-highest scorer, Suryakumar, is 135 runs behind.

Deepak Chahar has jumped to the third stop in the bowling chart. Tahir, who has two more wickets, is one rank ahead of Chahar. For Mumbai, Bumrah has taken the most wickets for them.

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Squads:

Chennai: Harbhajan Singh, Shane Watson, Dwayne Bravo, MS Dhoni (c), Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Murali Vijay, Karn Sharma, Kedar Jadhav, Ambati Rayudu, Imran Tahir, Faf du Plessis, Deepak Chahar, Sam Billings, Mohit Sharma, Shardul Thakur, Dhruv Shorey, Scott Kuggeleijn, Monu Kumar, Mitchell Santner, Chaitanya Bishnoi, N Jagadeesan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, KM Asif

Mumbai: Yuvraj Singh, Lasith Malinga, Rohit Sharma (c), Kieron Pollard, Aditya Tare, Mitchell McClenaghan, Jason Behrendorff, Suryakumar Yadav, Ben Cutting, Jayant Yadav, Quinton de Kock, Evin Lewis, Barinder Sran, Siddhesh Lad, Jasprit Bumrah, Beuran Hendricks, Pankaj Jaiswal, Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Anmolpreet Singh, Krunal Pandya, Rahul Chahar, Anukul Roy, Mayank Markande, Rasikh Salam.

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