Indian Premier League: Chennai Super Kings vs Mumbai Indians

If you would have asked punters at the start of this year’s Indian Premier League who the star batsmen of the tournament would be thus far there would have been a few familiar names being bandied about.

Mumbai Indians’ skipper Sachin Tendulkar would have been one of them, Chennai Super Kings’ Matthew Hayden another but you can bet no-one would have even considered Murali Vijay to be in illustrious company.

Indian Premier League Cricket Odds

Tuesday, April 6, 10am EST (8pm Chennai Local Time)

Chennai Super Kings +115
Mumbai Indians -145

After eight matches the 26-year-old Chennai all-rounder is leading his team with 300 runs at an average of 42.85 and a strike rate of 175.43 eclipsing team mates Hayden (261) and Suresh Raina (247) and is within striking distance of Tendulkar’s 349 thus far.

Vijay stamped his name in IPL folklore against Rajasthan Royals when he belted 127 off just 56 balls including 11 sixes posting this year’s highest individual score and the second highest score behind Brendon McCullum’s 158 not out in the inaugural tournament.

His blistering play through the on side will have been duly noted by the Mumbai Indians and they won’t make the same mistake as the Royals bowlers did when they repeatedly bowled into his swinging arc.

Most batsmen are happy to cop the occasional ball on middle and leg but the Royals did it with scary regularity allowing Vijay to cruise to his century and beyond.

The youngster’s lean year last season has already been erased from the collective memory and Vijay will be hoping Lasith Malinga and Zaheer Khan are as errant as the Royals quicks.

Mumbai seem to be persisting with the Harbhajan Singh experiment, the off spinner opened the bowling again in the last match for figures of 2/16 off three overs.

The ploy may work against Hayden who struggles early against the slow bowlers and who is low on confidence with scores of 34, 12 and 19 following an earlier 93 which starred the Mongoose bat.

Mumbai, who are now official leaders of the tournament and are looking good for the finals series, continue to post healthy totals and find it easy to contain the opposition through tight line and length bowling and good fielding.

West Indies combination of Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo give Tendulkar options with the ball and while they have yet to hit theirs straps with the bat, their contribution to the fielding team should not be understated.

Pollard moves well in the outfield for a big man and Bravo is lightning quick across the turf with bullet-like arm.

Tendulkar continues to give opposition bowlers a headache, his inimitable class continues to shine through against bowling attacks unable to combat his pure genius.

As soon as a bowler thinks he has Tendulkar on the ropes with a false shot or a play-and-miss, he simply walks across his stumps and flicks the ball to the boundary off his legs.

In their first clash Tendulkar spanked the Chennai bowlers for 72 off 52 balls in a man of the match performance, the loss formed part of a three game losing streak for Chennai and was part of a record five game winning streak for Mumbai.

The Indians are on the verge of six straight wins and will be far too classy for Chennai.

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