Sachin Tendulkar-led Mumbai Indians will play the hosts Lions in the first match of the Champions League T20 to be played at the Wanderers in Johannesburg.

Mumbai Indians (2/5 at Bwin to beat the Lions) had qualified for the tournament by entering the final of the Indian Premier League this year, while Lions (7/4 at Totesport) were the runner-up of the Standard Bank Pro20 in South Africa.

On paper, the Mumbai Indians looks like a much more fancied team, but there are a couple of caveats. One, Mumbai will be playing in South Africa, where the tracks will be bouncy and quick, and should assist the opposition, Lions. Secondly, the Mumbai Indians, much like all the other IPL teams, will be able to play only four foreign players and hence, the Indian players will need to adapt quickly to the alien conditions.

Sachin Tendulkar (5/2 at William Hill) was the star of the Mumbai campaign in the IPL, but after that, he has barely played any cricket. He was a part of the Asia Cup-winning squad, and featured in four ODIs, but that is all the cricket that he has played since the IPL. The other batsman, who could run havoc for Mumbai is Kieron Pollard (10/1 at Stan James), who had had a slow start to his Mumbai campaign but garnered much speed later.

While the Indian youngsters in Saurabh Tiwary (5/1 at Boylesports) and  Ambati Rayadu (8/1 at Bet365) will need to adapt themselves to the conditions as quickly as they can, the bulk of the scoring will have to be done by the pair of Tendulkar and Pollard. Dwayne Bravo’s contribution in the middle could prove crucial – if he can find his batting touch back.

Lions are led by Alviro Petersen (7/2 at Bet365), who is often tipped as one of the batsmen with great potential. However, if one were to look at his strike-rate, it is not what he would like it to be in this format of the game. Again, he will need the others to get the accelerating even as the captain will look to bat through the innings.

Two of the other batsmen who the Lions will on, are South African international, Neil McKenzie (4/1 at Bet365) and Zander de Bruyn (7/1 at Ladbrokes), who also plays for Somerset in the T20 format. With Vaughn van Jaarsveld’s ability to stick it out in the middle, Lions’  issue will be to find the batsmen who can send the ball into the stands on a consistent basis.

Tips:

Favourites: Mumbai Indians (2/5 at Bwin)
Top Mumbai batsman: Sachin Tendulkar (5/2 at William Hill)
Top Lions batsman: Zander de Bruyn (7/1 at Ladbrokes)