Indian Premier League 2020: Mumbai Indians vs. Chennai Super Kings, Match No. 1

IPL 2020 match 1 prediction

Winners Prediction: Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians kick-off the IPL 2020 season with their opening match at Abu Dhabi. CSK has a setback with Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh not available for this season. Mumbai Indians on the other hand have all their bases covered as usual. But MI has been a slow starter in all the IPL seasons so far. Our head says MI will win the match owing to their better playing XI, but our heart says CSK will win the match with MS Dhoni in charge.

Score Prediction: Abu Dhabi have been traditionally an average scoring ground where 160+ runs are scored only 15 times out of 45 matches. The average score at this venue is 147 runs so far and we expect teams to score around 150-160 runs in this match.

Toss Prediction: Chasing is the best option in this venue with 60-40 win-loss results so far in T20 matches played here.   

Predicted Playing XI

CHENNAI SUPER KINGS: MS Dhoni (C & Wk), Shane Watson, Faf Du Plessis, Ambati Rayudu, Kedhar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Piyush Chawla, Dwayne Bravo, Imran Tahir, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar/KM Asif

MUMBAI INDIANS: Quinton De Kock(wk), Rohit Sharma (c), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Trent Boult, Rahul Chahar

MATCH FACTS

• CSK & MI are the most successful teams in IPL history with 3 & 4 trophies so far.
• MI beat CSK four times in IPL 2019 and have an 18-12 win-loss record over their arch-rivals CSK. 
• MI never won a single game in 2014 edition of IPL played at UAE (5 losses).

Players to Bet on

CHENNAI SUPER KINGS

1. Faf Du Plessis – Du Plessis will have a big role to play this season in middle order with Raina not available.  We expect to have to good start to the season with a fine knock in the opening match. 
2. MS Dhoni – Dhoni last played competitive cricket in July 2019 & he recently retired from international cricket. Dhoni can be desicive in the middle order with his experience and temperament. 
3. Imran Tahir – Tahir had a superb tournament in CPL with 15 wickets at less than 6 RPO. He will look to lead the Chennai`s spin attack in the slow tracks of UAE.  

MUMBAI INDIANS

1. Rohit Sharma – Rohit Sharma is one of the talismans of the MI team in the batting department. He will be a tough batsman to contain once he gets going.  
2. Kieron Pollard – Pollard had a superb season in CPL winning the trophy as a skipper. He also performed well with the bat and ball in crunch moments to help his team win matches. 
3. Jasprit Bumrah – Bumrah is the pace spearhead of the MI team and he will look to take wickets of CSK batsmen in the crucial moments to give an upper hand to his team.  

DREAM XI Picks

Wicket-Keeper: MS Dhoni (CSK), Ishan Kishan (MI)

Batsmen: Rohit Sharma (MI), Faf Du Plessis (CSK), Suryakumar Yadav (MI)

All-rounders: Kieron Pollard (MI), Hardik Pandya (MI), Ravindra Jadeja (CSK)

Bowlers: Jasprit Bumrah (MI), Imran Tahir (CSK), Shardul Thakur (CSK)

Captain: Faf Du Plessis (CSK) or Kieron Pollard (MI)

Vice-Captain: Imran Tahir (CSK) or Jasprit Bumrah (MI)

CSK – Chennai Super Kings

MI – Mumbai Indians

Relevant news