It’s the last ball of the 2019 final. Chennai Super Kings need two to defend their title while Mumbai Indians look for a dot ball. Lasith Malinga bowls an ideal, more slow one, which Shardul Thakur neglects to associate and is caught leg previously. The Rohit Sharma-drove MI became champions for a record fourth time.
That last May 12 in Hyderabad is among the various potboilers that CSK and MI have given out through the Indian Premier League (IPL) years. As the 2020 delivery finally gets going in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, five months after it was first arranged due to Covid-19 constraints, it will be the two best teams in the opposition’s history with seven titles between them, which will be before long jolt horns.
There will be no fans to build up the atmosphere, nor is the opposition being played in India, yet it shouldn’t prevent an empowering starting.
Of late, MI has been CSK’s Achilles heel. It was not any more evident than the 2019 season, which saw CSK losing every one of the four matches, including the end of the season games and the last. MI is the leading group against which they have lost a larger number of matches than they have won.
This time around, MI will be without Malinga, yet their center is unblemished, and as mentor Mahela Jayawardene puts it, they are “good to go.” Again, MI will depend on Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik, and Krunal Pandya, Kieron Pollard, to take them over the line, yet they have included capability.
Chris Lynn has been acquired to add some solidarity to the top-request if the MI think-tank chooses to push Rohit Sharma down to add security to the center request. The bowling line-up has been tidied up with New Zealand’s left-arm fast in and out Trent Boult, Australia Nathan Coulter-Nile, a decent hitter Dhawal Kulkarni and James Pattinson (substitution for Malinga).
While MI has been on the head of their preparations since they arrived in UAE, the equivalent can’t be said about CSK. Their most experienced player and center request pillar, Suresh Raina, and veteran spinner Harbhajan Singh pulled out of the competition, referring to personal reasons.
Their arrangements took difficulty with forefront seamer Deepak Chahar and promising batsman Ruturaj Gaikwad testing positive. Presently the inquiry is whether the ‘Father’s Army’- – as they are alluded to given the bounty of 30 or more parts in their crew—will be a piece underprepared?
The pulling out of Raina, the second-most elevated run-scorer in IPL’s history, will be a major hit to their center request. With CSK not selecting to acquire substitutions, at this moment, their solitary alternatives to fill in for Raina at No 3 are either Rayudu or Jadhav. The other choice is Jadhav’s Maharashtra partner Gaikwad, who is yet to get a green sign to continue the practice.
