Two Indian T20 League heavyweights Mumbai and Chennai will meet for the first time in 2021. Both sides had a great history of epic rivalry in this tournament.
Match Timings: May 01, 7:30 PM IST
Team Preview
The El Classico of the Indian T20 League is back as Mumbai and Chennai will lock horns in Delhi tonight. Both sides even faced each other in four Indian T20 League finals and this rivalry is the biggest among all cricket leagues.
Mumbai are coming off a much-needed victory and they defeated Rajasthan by 7 wickets at the same ground. Defending champions are going through a mixed-phase and won only three games out of six but we had seen earlier how Mumbai bounce back in the second half of the tournament. Mumbai restricted Rajasthan on 171 after a fiery start from their openers. De Kock constructed the chase with 50-ball 70 and it helped Mumbai to gain two points after back-to-back defeats. Ishan Kishan was dropped in the last game and Coulter-Nile played his first game. Mumbai’s changes surprised us but they can change the approach against Chennai. Coulter Nile is providing Mumbai proper 5th bowling option because Krunal is not effective with the bowl. Mumbai can even drop Krunal to add Ishan Kishan but Krunal scored vital runs in the last game so chances are pretty dull. The surface has been changed so Mumbai can now avoid those middle-order issues in Delhi now.
Meanwhile, Chennai are coming off a 5-match winning streak and they are still in the top two with 10 points from 6 matches. Chennai’s biggest strength is its collective team performance. In the previous game, they bowled brilliantly as Hyderabad couldn’t fire in middle-overs despite having wickets in hand. Plessis and Gaikwad made the task easier with a fine century stand. Chennai won five matches and five different players won MOM which shows how Chennai are playing as a team not rely on individual brilliance. Gaikwad was struggling but they showed faith in him. Plessis is the leading run-scorer for Chennai and middle-order is also stepping up at a crucial phase. The Bowling unit is also ticking all the good points especially Deepak Chahar and Ngidi. Dhoni will go ahead with the winning XI in this big game and they are favouries now.
Mumbai had the big edge over Chennai in overall H2H games and they defeated Chennai four times in their last 5 encounters against Yellow Army. In last edition, Chennai won the opening game but Mumbai bounced back to defeat Chennai by 10 wickets.
Pitch Report
Delhi’s track is a pure batting track. Pacers can take some extra help from the pitch due to some bounce. Chasing would be a safe call but above 170 would be tricky here.
Possible XI
Mumbai
Quinton de Kock (wk), Rohit Sharma (c), Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Jayant Yadav, Rahul Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult
Chennai
Ruturaj Gaikwad, Faf du Plessis, Moeen Ali, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni (c & wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Shardul Thakur, Lungi Ngidi, Deepak Chahar
Key Players
Mumbai
Rohit Sharma
Top-scorer for Mumbai, 215 runs at an avg of 35.83
Rahul Chahar
Effective spin option for Mumbai, 11 wickets at an avg of 15.45
Chennai
Faf du Plessis
270 runs at an avg of 67.50, top-scorer for Chennai
Deepak Chahar
8 wickets at an avg of 19.50, effective with the new ball
