Struggling MI take on CSK in the IPL El Classico in match no 59

(Cricket news) For the majority of the 14 seasons before 2022, Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians have dominated the league with 9 titles between them, and have raised the roof whenever their paths have crossed. Although this season has not been smooth sailing for both the teams as they occupy the bottom two places in the table. For MI, their star player Suryakumar Yadav is out for the season, same applies to CSK with Ravindra Jadeja.

CSK dealt with a major blow when their former captain Jadeja was ruled out for the season with a rib injury. In the batting department, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway are forming a terrific opening pair. The two have put together one half-century and two century stands in just four innings. Along with that the finishing skills of MS Dhoni are coming in handy as he is only proving to the world that age is just a number. In the bowling department, Mukesh Choudhary seems to have turned the page after a poor start to the season and is their leading wicket taker this season, last match we saw Simranjeet Singh also perform well along with some season pros in the side. For CSK, Dwayne Bravo will hold the key as he has dismissed Rohit five times in the IPL before. 

For MI, Suryakumar Yadav who has been the most successful batter this season for them, has been ruled out of the remainder of the tournament with a forearm injury he suffered during the match against Gujarat Titans. In the batting department MI is clearly struggling to get any real partnerships going, the top order as well as the middle order have failed miserably this season. Mumbai can try out uncapped South African Tristan Stubbs in the playing XI as he could replace Ramandeep Singh, with Basil Thampi coming in for Riley Meredith to keep the overseas players' count to four. The batting really needs some reinforcements and Stubbs can bring that unknown quality to the table as the CSK bowlers must not have seen too much of him.

In the bowling department both Kieron Pollard and Jasprit Bumrah will be the key, Pollard has dismissed Conway three times in 17 balls for just 17 runs. He has been successful against Robin Uthappa also with three dismissals in 32 balls for only 42 runs. Against Moeen Ali, he has two dismissals in 25 balls for 25 runs. Bumrah fresh after his fifer against KKR, will look to get the better of Shivam Dube as he has dismissed him twice and scored just 10 runs in 17 balls against him.

Pitch and weather report: The Wankhede Stadium has historically been a high scoring venue with chasing being easier considering it's a small ground and dew playing a major part but the last two matches, the team batting first have won the match. The pacers will get a lot of pace and bounce with the new ball but once the ball becomes old, batting will be easier. The temperature is going to hover around 30 degrees with 10% chance of rain

Interesting facts:

  • MS Dhoni has scored 710 runs at a strike rate of 130.8 against MI in the tournament
  • Rohit Sharma has near-identical numbers against CSK – 752 runs at a strike rate of 125.3, including seven half-centuries
  • In IPL 2022, Pollard has scored only 144 runs in 11 innings at an average of 14.40 and a strike rate of 107.46.
  • Rohit Sharma has been dismissed 4 times against spin this season, scoring only 33 runs off 32 balls.
  • MS Dhoni will be batting his 200th innings for Chennai Super Kings in T20 cricket
  • Robin Uthappa (4951) is 49 runs away from completing 5000 runs in the tournament
  • Jasprit Bumrah (248) needs two scalps to complete 250 wickets in the T20 matches.
  • Devon Conway (3996) needs just four runs to complete the landmark of 4000 runs in T20 cricket.

Also read: Marsh's all-round heroics power DC to eight-wicket win over RR

Probable XI for CSK:
1 Ruturaj Gaikwad, 2 Devon Conway, 3 Moeen Ali, 4 Robin Uthappa, 5 Shivam Dube, 6 Ambati Rayudu, 7 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 8 Dwayne Bravo, 9 Simarjeet Singh, 10 Maheesh Theekshana, 11 Mukesh Choudhary

Probable XI for MI:
1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Ishan Kishan (wk), 3 Tilak Varma, 4 Tristan Stubbs/Ramandeep Singh, 5 Tim David, 6 Kieron Pollard, 7 Daniel Sams, 8 Hrithik Shokeen, 9 Kumar Kartikeya, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Basil Thampi/Riley Meredith
 

SHARE:

Share The Article:

Leave A Reply