Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Chennai Super Kings v Mumbai Indians, MATCH PREVIEW

Posted by sahill786 at 11:22 AM 0 Comments

Match facts

Wednesday, April 4, Chennai

Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)

Ladies and gentlemen, it's finally time for the main course.

He opening fixture of IPL 2012 features two heavyweight teams – Chennai Super Kings defending champions of the Indian Premier League, lock horns with 2011 Champions League T20 winners Mumbai Indians.

Chennai Super Kings, who won the IPL title for the first time in 2010 and defended it successfully in 2011, will begin the 2012 season eyeing their third consecutive IPL title.

Mumbai Indians, on the other hand, will remember the defeat at the hands of CSK in the IPL 2010 final and will want to settle scores on this occasion.

The dynamics of the battle have, however, changed quite a bit, especially with the Little Master relinquishing his Team Mumbai captaincy. He is a free man yet again, relieved of the shackles of leading a side that always goes into the tournament as the most-hyped team, and that makes him a different proposition altogether.

Defending champions Chennai, too, know how dangerous Sachin can be. They have made their preparations for him, which the team management obviously won't divulge at the moment. But skipper MS Dhoni made it clear that Mumbai would be very tough to beat under Bhajji as well. "Harbhajan is a feisty player and has the right attitude. He loves challenges and can take adverse conditions in his stride," Dhoni said, looking ahead to Wednesday's game.

Chennai is an extremely well-drilled unit and the skipper gave the impression that they were not too perturbed by Mike Hussey's absence.

Stats and trivia

Super Kings' overall win-loss ratio across four seasons (1.54) is comfortably ahead of second-placed Mumbai, who have a corresponding value of 1.26.

Chepauk, traditionally a high-scoring venue, experienced a drop in the run-rate in 2011 to 7.86. The rate was above 8 in the first and third IPL seasons.

Mumbai and Super Kings have played eight games against each other and the head-to-head record is locked at 4-4.