IPL 2024 MI vs CSK Preview - Clash of the Titans

Key match stats

Pitch conditons - Wankhede Stadium IPL records

Pitch stats from the 10 most recent IPL matches played at the Wankhede Stadium

Team form MI vs CSK
MI: LLLWW
CSK: WWLLW

Recent meetings: IPL 2023 - CSK won by 7 wickets, CSK won by 6 wickets

Weather

General Forecast: Dry and Clear
Chance of dew: Moderate to High

Preview MI vs CSK

It's a clash of the titans. The cricketing equivalent of El Classico and a game that any fan of the IPL will always check the schedule for at the start of a season.

Between them, these 2 franchises have claimed 10 of the 16 IPL titles to have been won to date and there's a good chance that at least one of them will be in the final again this year looking to win a 6th championship.

Mumbai have recovered from their horror start with back to back wins at the Wankhede. Home conditions have played a big part in the early part of IPL 2024 but for MI, the Wankhede has always been a fortress and they'll be keen to make it 3 wins in a row here against their old foes.

MI have a 62% win rate in matches played at the Wankhede and RCB found to their detriment there recent record in chasing at this stadium is formidable. Mumbai have won 7 of the last 9 matches in which they've batted 2nd at the Wankhede.

Conditions look very likely to be the same as the match here earlier in the week with a strong possibility of dew having an impact in the 2nd innings. Since the start of last season, the 3 IPL games that have been won here by sides batting first have seen scores of 214, 218 and 234.

However, recent matches at the Wankhede between MI and CSK have generally been low scoring affairs. Back in 2022, a season in which both these teams struggled, CSK were bowled out in their first innings for just 97 as Daniel Sams ran riot with the new ball. Last year, MI batted first and suffered a middle order collapse instigated by CSK's left-arm spinners.

Both teams have enough new ball quality to present a challenge to the opposition's respective top orders but if the batsmen can get through those first 3 or 4 overs then we know there are runs on offer.

CSK will certainly take heart from their recent performance against an equally powerful KKR batting line-up. In that match, it was the Super Kings ability to take wickets on a regular basis throughout the innings that limited Kolkata from getting any momentum. It'd be some achievement if they could do something similar again.

New CSK captain Gaiwkad, also played his most substantial innings of the season to date and the runs and the win will take a bit of the pressure off his shoulders. Hardik Pandya can sympathise with that pressure and while there were a few boos when he walked out to bat against RCB, they quickly turned into cheers when he smashed 21 off 6 balls to accelerate his team to a statement win.

MI vs CSK head to head

CSK bowling vs MI batting

Deepak Chahar has already struck 4 times in the powerplay this season and his record at the Wankhede is impressive. At the same time, CSK need to make inroads into this MI batting line-up because as both DC and RCB found, they will keep coming at you with a long and hard hitting batting line-up.

Deepak Chahar T20 record at the Wankhede

As we saw in the game between these 2 last season, it's not just the CSK swing bowlers who enjoy conditions at the Wankhede. CSK's spinners also have a good record on this track, including Moeen Ali who has struck at a wicket every 13 balls in collecting 11 victims here in previous T20 matches.

CSK could entertain a recall for Moeen or they could opt to go big on left-arm spinners particularly with Suryakumar Yadav in mind. Sky averages 34.8 against left-arm orthodox spin but's his strike rate that really takes a hit, reduced down to just 111 compared to pace bowling in general which over his career disappears at around 170.

Sky T20 head to head vs Jadeja

In many ways it's strange then that's he's not been asked to play more left-arm spin across his career. Less than 13% of the balls he's faced in T20 cricket have been from SLA spin and therefore he's only been dismissed by it 14 times. CSK have 2 bowlers in their squad who account for 6 of those dismissals with Jadeja and Santner having gotten him 3 times each while going going at an economy of well under a run ball. That is an impressive record against what many claim to be the best T20 batsmen in world cricket at the moment.

MI bowling vs CSK batting

We now turn our attention to the obligatory part of the match preview dedicated to considering how the opposition prevent Jasprit Bumrah from winning MI the game! Had Mumbai's star bowler not conceeded 4 off his final delivery against RCB then he'd had recorded the best ever bowling figures in the 80+ IPL matches played at the Wankhede.

Gaikwad T20 record at the Wankhede

When you then look at the first graphic on this blog that shows pace bowling at the Wankhede going at 10 an over and averaging 36.1 across the past 10 IPL matches here then it puts his performances into context. There is a strong argument to be made that he is the greatest multi-format bowler in the history of the game, accepting that many of the iconic bowlers of the past didn't have the opportunity to play T20 cricket.

His battle against Gaikwad, who has a pretty miserable record here at the Wankhede, will be key especially as the CSK skipper has scored at an S/R of 200 against Bumrah from the 13 deliveries he's faced to date.

Dube T20 head to head vs Bumrah

However, this is also an opposition where MI will fancy that Bumrah can get stuck into a CSK middle order more suited to taking on the spinners as opposed to world class quicks.

Speaking of spinners, it was interesting to see Shreyas Gopal come into the MI side for the game against RCB. He'd played just 4 IPL matches since the start of the 2021 season. Of course, he had taken 20 wickets in the 2019 season and his IPL career was not helped by Covid and the 3 seasons largely spent either overseas or on neutral venues.

Still, there was nothing in his previous Wankhede performances (he had a bowling average of 95.5 in T20 cricket here prior to the game against RCB) that would make you think he's a good player to reintroduce.

A working hypothesis here might be that much like Chawla last season, MI are banking on the fact that Gopal has not been around for such a long time that most batsmen now playing in the IPL haven't faced him before. Only 4 of CSK's line-up have played against Gopal before in T20 cricket and 2 of them (Jadeja and Moeen) have faced an over or less from the wrist spinner. Let's see if he keeps his place against this CSK side.

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All stats used in this blog are from my own databases which are freely accessible below
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IPL stadium records.
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