MATCH: Chennai Super Kings v Mumbai Indians
DATE: Saturday, September 24, 2011
TIME: 2000 hours IST (1430 hours GMT)
VENUE: M Chidamabaram Stadium in Chennai
In an all-India third game of the Champions League T20 2011, IPL winners and defending CLT20 champions Chennai Super Kings play the Mumbai Indians on Saturday.
Past Record:
Chennai (11/17 at
Bwin) had failed to qualify for the first edition of the Champions League T20 but had made it count when they did make it to the second season. They had gone on to win the competition by beating the Warriors in the final.
The Mumbai Indians (11/8 at
Blue Square) had also qualified for the second season after missing out on the first edition. However, they were knocked out of the competition in the first round itself last year, after they finished fourth in their group.
Chennai and Mumbai have never met in the Champions League T20 before.
Side-effect:
Chennai go into the game as favourites and under the captaincy of MS Dhoni, one would expect them to steamroll over a badly-injured Mumbai Indians side. Mumbai Indians will know that their chances of going through to the semi-finals are bleak given the list of absences and the best they would want to do is to pounce on any small opportunity that their much more fancied opponent provide them with.
Team News:
For starters, Mumbai Indians will be without Sachin Tendulkar, their captain. Harbhajan Singh, who has once captained Mumbai Indians before in the IPL, will take over the reins but will hope that the campaign doesn’t in the manner that it had in his last time as captain – banned by the BCCI for slapping S Sreesanth.
Rohit Sharma misses out, as does Munaf Patel and they are joined by Suryakumar Yadav, Dhawal Kulkarni, Aditya Tare and Pawan Suyal, all of whom are not fit to play in this tournament. Such has been their plight that the CLT20 organising committee has allowed the side to play five foreign players instead of the mandated four, a stunning deviation from the rules.
Andrew Symonds (6/1 at
Boylesports) has been called up and he joins the likes of Kieron Pollard (7/1 at
Boylesports) and Lasith Malinga, both of whom will now spearhead the batting and the bowling for the Mumbai Indians.
Chennai’s only injury came in the form of Tim Southee. He has been ruled out but the Super Kings have enough backup to fill his void. Michael Hussey (10/3 at
Blue Square), fresh from his man of the series in Sri Lanka, will open the innings with Murali Vijay with Doug Bollinger and R Ashwin to lead the bowling for the side.
Who is hot?
Mumbai Indians will hope for the Indian younger guns like Ambati Rayadu and R Satish to deliver the goods in the middle-order. Suresh Raina will look to put the Tests against England further behind when he goes out to bat in his favourite format of the sport.
Prediction:
Despite the format and its unpredictability, it should be a cakewalk for the Chennai Super Kings.
