IPL 2018, CSK vs MI, Match Preview: Mumbai Indians to fight for survival against Chennai Super Kings

As the sun begins to blaze the summer skies, cricket fans are eagerly waiting for one of the most favourite clashes of the Indian Premier League to light up the weekend. It's time for some ultimate IPL matches - the clash of  titans between Chennai Super Kings and current champions Mumbai Indians

On one hand, Chennai Super Kings are at the top of the standings with five wins and 10 points, on the other hand, Mumbai Indians are at the bottom of the list with just one win and 2 points.

MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings’s four out of five matches were nail-biting finishes and turned in their favour in the last over of the match. One of the match was even sealed off the last ball of the match.

Meanwhile, the defending champions are facing challenges to end the game with a win. In the most recent match against SunRisers Hyderabad, Mumbai Indians even failed to chase down a small total of 118.

Reserve wicket-keeper of Mumbai Indians, Aditya Tare said, “We were never too far away from victory. The morale in the dressing-room is still pretty high and we believe we can make the play-offs’’.

There are several out of form players including Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard which are being considered as the reasons for the poor performance of the team so far.

If Chennai Super Kings manages to win against Mumbai Indians today, then CSK will stay at the top position of the Points table for some more time and will find it easy to confirm their spot for the Play-offs.

Talking about the venue of the match, it will be held at the Maharashtra Cricket Association’s International Stadium in Pune, since all the remaining CSK matches have been shifted from Chennai to Pune due to water scarcity in the region.

Match Prediction – CSK’s batsman and Orange Cap holder Ambati Rayadu is the key player to watch out for. Apart from Rayadu, Shane Watson is also looking in good form since he wore the Yellow jersey.

Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians includes an infamous finisher in their squad, Suryakumar Yadav. In the four innings he played so far, he scored 159 runs.

Additionally, the squad of Mumbai Indians also includes wicket-taking bowlers such as Jasprit Bumrah and Mayank Markande.

Talking statistically, MI and CSK has faced each other on 23 occasions and Chennai came out on top 12 times and Mumbai won 11 times.