Chennai: IPL heavyweight Chennai Super Kings open their campaign at their bastion in Chennai against Mumbai Indians in game two of Saturday's double-header, and with a replenished pace bowling attack the home team could look to rattle the shaky MI batting order.
Mumbai lost their season opener by two runs to Royal Challengers Bangalore on Thursday night, with their batsmen, bar Dinesh Karthik, struggling to dominate the RCB bowling. Their latest opening pair boast a whopping 61,657 international runs between them but in their first alliance together neither Sachin Tendulkar nor Ricky Ponting convinced against Bangalore. Their running between the wickets was shaky and neither batsman was able to force the pace.
Rohit Sharma again came a cropper with a crude swing across the line while Ambati Rayudu ate up 18 deliveries for 18 runs during a tense chase. And why Harbhajan Singh was sent ahead of Jacon Oram also made little sense in the final over. That won't suffice against CSK, who have a habit of pouncing on weakness and winning the key moments.
Having hopped across the regional state border into Tamil Nadu, will again be without the services of their bowling spearhead Lasith Malinga. The slinger from Sri Lanka missed the first Bangalore game due to a niggle and even if he's fit, Malinga won't be able to play in Chennai owing to the directive from the IPL governing council following Tamil Nadu chief mister Jayalalithaa's refusal to let Sri Lankans
09:36 PM, Apr 05, 2013
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