IPL 2024: Strength and power of hosts MI in focus as they confront charging CSK

Chennai Super Kings’ MS Dhoni is likely to make his final appearance at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday. – AFP

Fierce rivals Mumbai and Chennai meet in a key IPL clash at the historic Wankhede Stadium on Sunday with the former looking to maintain their supremacy over the Super Kings.

The two sides, who have each won five IPL titles, have faced each other in 36 matches with the Indians having emerged winners on 20 occasions.

Indian legend Mahendra Singh Dhoni is likely to make the final appearance of his illustrious career at the stadium, which turns into a cauldron of raucous home fans every time their team plays a match at the Churchgate venue close to the city’s iconic Marine Drive.

However, Dhoni will not be wearing the captain’s armband for this emotional match with Ruturaj Gaikwad leading the yellow army out in the second of two matches scheduled for the holiday.

In another massive match, second-placed Kolkata Knight Riders host fourth-placed Lucknow Super Giants at Eden Gardens which nests in the very heart of the bustling city of Kolkata.

The two sides have met just three times in the IPL with Lucknow having won all of them since the franchise was formed in 2021.

The toss will be taken shortly before the game begins at 2:00 pm (UAE time), while the Wandkhede game is scheduled to tee off at 6:00 pm (UAE).

Despite being 42 years old Dhoni has not lost his aura. or ability, and is still very much the centre of attention whether he is behind the wickets or in front when the side bats.

CSK are looking to end a two-match loss in away games, having posted their three wins of the 2024 event in the comfort of their home ground, the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.

However, the Super Kings carry a strong recent record to the game as they have won four of their last five matches against Mumbai, which includes a thumping seven-wicket win last season.

The match has a sub-plot with both sides featuring new leadership with Hardik Pandya having replaced Rohit Sharma at MI and Ruturaj Gaikwad taking over the mantle from Dhoni.

Mumbai’s batters looked in ominous form with their pounding win over Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Chennai bowlers will have to be disciplined and not allow them to deliver a repeat performance at the stadium’s flat pitch.

The Indians have reveled at the stadium amassing over 430 runs in two matches against Delhi and Bangalore.

Pandya’s squad appear to have discovered their mojo after suffering three defeats with the return of the explosive Suryakumar Yadav.

Ishan Kishan and Rohit Sharma are one of the best opening partnerships among the ten franchises and a lot of Mumbai’s fortunes ride on this pairing.

CSK are no slouch either and boast a deep batting line-up built around skipper Gaikwad’s consistency and professionalism.

New Zealand’s Rachin Ravindra is a dominant player while Daryl Mitchell can shore up the middle order..

Shivam Dube and Dhoni are among the best finishers in T20 cricket and could play pivotal roles if required.

In the bowling department, Mumbai boasts one of the most devastating pacers in record-breaker and joint Purple Cap holder Jasprit Bumrah who looks to be at his deadly best following his five-wicket haul against Bangalore, where he claimed the prize wicket of Virat Kohli who managed just 3 runs from nine balls in a rare failure at the crease.

Mumbaikars Shardul Thakur and Tushar Deshpande are very much at home at the Wankhede and CSK will rely a lot on them to capitalize on that advantage and deliver something special to peg back the mighty Mumbai batters.

Venue: Eden Gardens, Kolkata

Match starts at: 2 pm (UAE)

: Shreyas Iyer (c), KS Bharat, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, Andre Russell, Nitish Rana, Venkatesh Iyer, Anukul Roy, Ramandeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, Vaibhav Arora, Chetan Sakariya, Harshit Rana, Suyash Sharma, Mitchell Starc, Dushmantha Chameera, Sakib Hussain and Mujeeb Ur Rahman.

KL Rahul (c), Quinton de Kock, Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Kyle Mayers, Marcus Stoinis, Deepak Hooda, Devdutt Padikkal, Ravi Bishnoi, Naveen-ul-Haq, Krunal Pandya, Yudhvir Singh, Prerak Mankad, Yash Thakur, Amit Mishra, Shamar Joseph, Mayank Yadav, Mohsin Khan, K. Gowtham, Arshin Kulkarni, M. Siddharth, Ashton Turner, Matt Henry and Mohd Arshad Khan.

Venue: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

Match starts at 6:00 pm (UAE)

Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya(c), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Mohammad Nabi, Piyush Chawla, Gerald Coetzee, Jasprit Bumrah, Akash Madhwal, Kwena Maphaka, Naman Dhir, Nehal Wadhera, Shams Mulani, Shreyas Gopal, Luke Wood, Vishnu Vinod, Arjun Tendulkar, Kumar Kartikeya, Shivalik Sharma, Anshul Kamboj, Nuwan Thushara, Dewald Brevis.

Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), MS Dhoni, Moeen Ali, Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Shivam Dube, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajay Mandal, Mukesh Choudhary, Ajinkya Rahane, Shaik Rasheed, Mitchell Santner, Simarjeet Singh, Nishant Sindhu, Prashant Solanki, Maheesh Theekshana, Rachin Ravindra, Shardul Thakur, Daryl Mitchell, Sameer Rizvi, Mustafizur Rahman, Avanish Rao Aravelly.