Mumbai Indians v Chennai Super Kings Tips: Ali and Gaikwad can go again

• Mumbai bowling looks weak

• Advantage to the chaser at the Wankhede Stadium

• Red-hot Gaikwad can come good again at 7/2

Saturday April 8, 15:00
TV: Live on Sky Sports

Mumbai Team News

With most sides now looking forward to their third match of the season, Mumbai will play just their second.

They'll be looking to bounce back from a big defeat to RCB last weekend, posting 171/7 and watching Bangalore's top order make a mockery of that total by chasing it with 22 balls to spare for the loss of just two wickets.
That their bowling might struggle should come as no surprise.

Jofra Archer aside, it's lacking in star quality, or just IPL quality, for that matter. Jason Behrendoff, who came on as an impact sub has a fine T20 record but it's not on these sorts of pitches and he wouldn't be the first Australian bowler to not be able to transfer Big Bash form to this competition.

Tim David continues to have a quiet time of it, as has been the case for the last few months; South African duo Tristan Stubbs and Dewald Brevis will wait for their chance.

Possible XISharma, Kishan, Green, Sky Yadav, Varma, Wadhera, David, Behrendorff, Khan, Chawla, Archer.

CSK Team News

Two games, one win. After losing to Gujarat first up, CSK bounced back with a 12-run win in a high-scoring match against LSG.

All of Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devon Conway, Shivam Dube and Ambati Rayudu made important contributions with the bat, with high strike rates, to post 217/7.

But they can thank man-of-the-match Moeen Ali for defending that because some attacking batting and wayward bowling allowed LSG to get off to a fast start and they needed Ali's wickets to peg them back.

His 4/26 was essential and Chennai would have been grateful to have had Ben Stokes the fielder in action because Stokes the all-rounder is going nowhere fast. The England Test skipper took two vital catches on the boundary that went a long way to winning the match.

But they'll have to be a lot more disciplined with the ball going forward. They conceded 13 wides and two no-balls last time out.

Sisanda Magala, who bowled beautifully for South Africa in the last month or so and is now available, could come in for Mitchell Santner.

Possible XIGaikwad, Conway, Dube, Ali, Stokes, Rayudu, Jadeja, Dhoni, Santner/Magala, Chahar, Hangargekar

Pitch report

The Wankhede Stadium is one of the higher-scoring grounds with a first innings average of 167. The average winning first innings score is 181.

Chasers win 52% of the time which is actually a bit lower than you'd think it would be.

Mumbai will feel their best chance of winning is in a chase because right now they probably wouldn't trust their bowlers to defend any less than about 190-195.

But MS Dhoni could spring a surprise by batting first after it served them well in midweek if he were to win the toss.

How to play

Mumbai are 1.9310/11 favourites on the back of a good head-to-head record in this fixture with 21 wins and 15 defeats from the 36 matches between them.

The market is also taking into consideration that they generally do well at home, though that certainly hasn't been the case so much these last few years.

But CSK dodged a bullet the other day, and their bowling looks a bit suspect itself. The plan if you want to play may be to try to back the chaser at the halfway mark at around 1.910/11-2.01/1 if they're chasing 180 or less.

CSK Top Batsman

The first price of note in this market is the 11/1 on Shivam Dube, who last time out batted at three and hit a vital 27 off 16. If he bats there again, by no means a certainty, that will look big indeed because he can score quickly and looked in great touch the other day.

But at a boosted 7/2 you can back Gaikwad to make it three from three. He started off with 92 and followed that up with 57, top-scoring on both occasions. Unsurprisingly, he's the Orange Cap holder right now.

If we're unsure about Dube's batting position, that's not the case here. Gaikwad will open, is in fine form, full of confidence and has now played enough IPL cricket to be considered the real deal. The 11/4 may have tempted us anyway but the boosted 7/2 is too good to turn down.

CSK Top Bowler

And let's see if Ali can strike again. He doesn't often bowl his four overs in the IPL but MS Dhoni will have taken note of how tidy yet aggressive his bowling was the other day and may give him his full quota for a second match running.

If Santner misses out to Sigala, Ali may be preferred to the somewhat out-of-sorts Jadeja as the chief spinner and may have every chance of being CSK top bowler. The nice thing about a quote of 11/2 is that a two-way tie for wickets will still see you walk away with a decent profit.