Winless Mumbai face Chennai challenge

Their campaign off to a disastrous start, defending champions Mumbai Indians would be gunning for their first win in the seventh edition of IPL but it won’t be easy as they take on formidable Chennai Super Kings, who are on a roll, here on Friday.

MI could n’t have asked for a nightmarish start to the tournament as the Rohit Sharma-led side suffered big defeats to Kolkata Knight Riders (by 41 runs) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (by 7 wickets) in their first two games.

The Mumbai outfit, have plenty of work to do both in their batting as well as bowling departments. It is their batting which has hurt the title holders badly as they could only muster 122 and 115 in their previous two games.

Ambati Rayudu got starts in both the matches but failed to convert them into big scores, while senior players like Mike Hussey, skipper Rohit Sharma and Correy Anderson have been far from impressive and they will be have to shoulder more responsibility if the team hopes to defend its title.

Going by form, Chennai will start as overwhelming favourites against a struggling Mumbai side. Two-time winners CSK will bank on their strong batting order to give the team a flying start.