The five-time League winner Rohit Sharma-led Mumbai will square off against four-time league winner MS Dhoni-led Chennai at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Saturday, 08th April at 07:30 PM IST.
MUM will be heading for this match after facing a crushing defeat against Bangalore in their opening league encounter. On the other hand, Chennai will boost up with confidence after defeating Lucknow in the last match by 12 runs.
The Blue Submarine set to welcome their archrivals at home after a gap of 3 years in the biggest cricket league. Fans from north and south will be dying to see the two giants who share 9 IND T20 League titles between them return at Wankhede out of the 15th seasons played so far.
MUM who is known for being the slow starter of the league, knows very well how to bounce in the big and crucial matches. Rohit Sharma-led side played their first game against Faf Du-Plessis-led BLR at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Batting first, Mumbai managed to score 171 runs after losing 4 wickets for 48.
Last season’s great find, the left-handed batter Tilak Verma played sublime knockoff 84 runs in 46 deliveries, smashing 9 fours and 4 sixes. But Bangalore’s opening pair Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis added 148 runs for the first wicket partnership to make the chase looks easy. The veteran batter of the side and leading run scorer in the IND T20 League history, Kohli’s 82 remained unbeaten to win the game by 8 wickets.
For Mumbai, 25-year-old pacer Arshad Khan and Aussie all-rounder Cameroon Green managed to take 1 wicket each. With the loss, MUM kept their record of losing the season’s first game alive since 2013.
The yellow army returned strong against Lucknow after losing the first game against defending league champions Gujarat by 5 wickets. In red-hot form, Ruturaj Gaikwad hit his second half-century (57), followed by some brief cameos by Kiwi batter Devon Conway (47), Shivam Dube (27), Ambati Rayudu (27) and fan’s favourite MS Dhoni who smashed 12 off 3 balls which included two big sixes against Mark Wood in the last match.
Defending 218, Chennai suffered a scare at the beginning after seeing Windies batter Kyle Mayers once again LUC’s top run scorer with 53 runs off 22 balls that included 8 fours and 2 sixes in his blistering knock.
Another Windies left-handed batter Nicholas Pooran smashed 32 runs off 18 balls that included 2 fours and 3 sixes in his innings which were too little too late as LUC failed to reach the target and fell short by 12 runs.
Mumbai and Chennai have played a total of 34 games in the IND T20 league so far. In these games, MUM has been successful in winning 20 matches while CHE has won 14 games. In recent games, Mumbai has had a slight edge over Chennai with 3 wins in the 5 games. All wins have come while chasing the target.
In the last encounter between these two, MUM bowled out CHE for 97. Tilak Verma and Tim David chased the target in the 15th over of the match. This was revenge by Mumbai against the final ball Chennai won in the last season, chasing 155.
Match Details
Match: MUM vs CHE, 12th Match, IND T20 League 2023
Date: Saturday, April 08, 2023
Time: 07:30 PM
Venue: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
Pitch and Weather Report
This track is usually hard and dry, offering good bounce and carry to the ball. Wankhede can be particularly advantageous to the spinners, who can use the pitch’s natural variations to get turn and bounce. However, as the match progresses, Wankhede’s pitch slows down, making it slightly easier for the batsmen to score runs.
In 9 T20Is here at Wankhede, the team batting second has won the game on 5 occasions, while the team batting first has won 4 times on this green track. But the games between CHE and MUM have the preferred team batting second on this ground.
On 6 out of 9 occasions, one of these two has chased down the target. Wankhede holds a capacity of 33,000 spectators and has hosted 27 Tests, 28 ODIs & 9 T20Is so far. India has recorded the highest total of 240 on this ground in T20Is.
The maximum temperature will remain at 33°C, with a low of 28°C with 61% humidity, and a wind speed of 19 Km/hr for the 12th Match, the IND T20 League on April 08 b/w MUM and CHE. The weather in Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai during the match day will be clear and no rain is predicted in this evening encounter but it is going to be balmy.
MUM vs CHE Squads
MUM: Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan, Cameron Green, Suryakumar Yadav, Tristan Stubbs, Piyush Chawla, Raghav Goyal, Nehal Wadhera, Jofra Archer, Shams Mulani, Vishnu Vinod, Duan Jansen, Tim David, Ramandeep Singh, Tilak Varma, Dewald Brevis, Arjun Tendulkar, Arshad Khan, Kumar Kartikeya, Hrithik Shokeen, Jason Behrendorff, Akash Madhwal, Sandeep Warrier
CHE: MS Dhoni (c), Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ambati Rayudu, Subhranshu Senapati, Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Dwaine Pretorius, Mitchell Santner, Ravindra Jadeja, Tushar Deshpande, Mukesh Chowdhary, Matheesha Pathirana, Simarjeet Singh, Deepak Chahar, Prashant Solanki, Maheesh Theekshana, Ajinkya Rahane, Ben Stokes, Shaik Rasheed, Nishant Sindhu, Sisanda Magala, Ajay Mandal, Bhagath Varma.
MUM vs CHE Probable Playing XIs
MUM: Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Cameron Green, Tilak Varma, Tim David, Nehal Wadhera, Shams Mulani, Piyush Chawla, Jofra Archer, Arshad Khan.
CHE: Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Moeen Ali, Ben Stokes, Ambati Rayudu, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni (c & wk), Shivam Dube, Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, RS Hangargekar
Match Prediction
It is going to be one of the top matches for this year. Mumbai has an extraordinary record against Chennai. Rohit Sharma-led MUM won 3 of their last 5 games against Dhoni’s yellow army. Even at Wankhede, Mumbai has 6 wins in 9 games against Chennai. But the current combination gives a slight edge to Chennai over Mumbai. Whistle Podu’s sublime opener Ruturaj Gaikwad’s form, formidable middle order, and wicket-taking all-rounders make Chennai the favourite to win the game. We predict Chennai to defeat Mumbai.