The first match of this edition of the IPL may be seen as a microcosm of how the tournament has panned out so far for Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians.
In that game, CSK prevailed from a hopeless situation in the final over and since then has gone on to win three more cliffhangers in the final over to post five wins out of six.
For MI it is the inverse (five losses from six games) with four of its five defeats coming in the final over from comfortable positions.
As the two sides get ready for the return leg here on Saturday, CSK has a chance to cement its position at the top of the table, while for MI there can't be a better way to restart its season than getting one over the leader.
Over the next three days, CSK would like to pull ahead of the pack as it takes on two teams at the bottom of the table with a match against Delhi Daredevils on Monday.
Two wins here will put the team in a very comfortable position for the second half of the season and could set the platform for the former champion to even aim for a top-two finish.
An area of weakness though is the fact that the team relies a lot on Dwayne Bravo to deliver in the final overs with the ball and would need someone like Shardul Thakur to do more to provide support from the other end.
But, bowling consultant Eric Simmons downplayed the fact CSK has the second worst economy rate in the final five overs after Royal Challengers Bangalore, putting it down to the nature of the wickets.
For MI, the only silver lining is the fact that it needs to win six of its next eight games to stay alive and this, in a way, allows the team play a more aggressive brand of cricket.
Even though some of the key players in the team, be it skipper Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard or Hardik Pandya, haven't fired, in four losses the team lost key moments after having the opposition on the mat.
While the abject surrender to Sunrisers Hyderabad in its last match, chasing a modest total, would have raised a few unwanted doubts, the team would do well to start looking at ways to clinch the key moments than thinking of an overhaul.
Teams (from):
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Mustifizur Rahman, Adam Milne, Suryakumar Yadav, Krunal Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Rahul Chahar, Evin Lewis, Saurabh Tiwary, Ben Cutting, Pradeep Sangwan, Jean-Paul Duminy, Tajinder Singh, Sharad Lumba, Siddhesh Lad, Aditya Tare, Mayank Markande Akila Dhanajaya, Anukul Roy, Mohsin Khan, MD Nidheesh and Mitchell McClenaghan.
Chennai Super Kings: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Faf Du Plesis, Harbhajan Singh, Dwayne Bravo, Shane Watson, Ambati Rayadu, Deepak Chahar, K M Asif, Kanish Seth, Lungi Ngidi, Dhruv Shorey, Murali Vijay, Sam Billings, Mark Wood, Kshtiz Sharma, Monu Kumar, Chaitanya Bishnoi, Imran Tahir, Karn Sharma, Shardul Thakur and N Jagadeesan, David Willy.
Match starts at 8 PM.
