Chennai, India

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The two most successful IPL teams, Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians, will face off in match 49th of IPL 2023 at Chepauk on Saturday afternoon. At Wankhede in the previous encounter, Chennai came on top - thanks to a superb 27-ball 61 from Ajinkya Rahane, who helped the visitors win by seven wickets. In the return leg, the high-flying Mumbai Indians will aim to settle the score and move ahead of CSK on the points table.

The hosts haven’t had the best time since beating Kolkata Knight Riders in the away game, having lost two matches in their last three outings. After a stellar start this season where CSK looked like making the playoffs with relative ease, they struggled a bit on their way through and now have a task at hand to win at least three of their remaining four games.

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Without reading much into their approach that helped them win more games than a contrasting result in IPL 2023, Chennai still need to up its bowling game to stay alive in the playoffs race. With Deepak Chahar returning after spending a couple of weeks on the sidelines, CSK will hope for an improved performance against the MI batters – who have wreaked havoc lately.

Maheesh Theekshana, probably the only weak link in the inexperienced CSK bowling setup, could make way for Mitchell Santner, as the home team will aim to bag two crucial points in IPL’s El-Clasico.

On the other hand, there is no stopping Mumbai Indians, who, in the last two matches, chased 200-plus totals without much hassle. With Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav returning to form and Tilak Varma providing stability at number five, Mumbai will enter this contest with their heads high. The presence of Australian Tim David in the lower order adds more value to this daunting-looking batting line-up.

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However, it is Mumbai’s bowling that will bother them against Chennai. Even though English pacer Jofra Archer returned from injury, he has been too expensive – going for over eight runs per over. Veteran Piyush Chawla has been among the wickets – having picked 15 wickets in just nine games. At Chepauk, where it is likely to assist spinners, Piyush could return to be a thorn in the flesh for his former franchise.

Result Prediction –

While Mumbai Indians are on a winning spree, the lack of depth and experience in their bowling could cost them the game against heavyweights CSK in Chennai.

Here are the predicted XIs of both teams –

CSK - Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ajinkya Rahane, Shivam Dube, Moeen Ali, MS Dhoni (C&WK), Ravindra Jadeja, Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Matheesha Pathirana and Tushar Deshpande

MI - Rohit Sharma (C), Ishan Kishan (WK), Cameron Green, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Tim David, Nehal Wadhera, Hrithik Shokeen, Jofra Archer, Piyush Chawla and Akash Madhwal