IPL 2019 Playoffs: Can the Chennai Super Kings Win at Home?

The Chennai Super Kings became the first team to book a slot in the playoffs. However, there are chances that they may be vulnerable during the playoffs itself. The 3-time IPL champions take on fellow 3-time champions, the Mumbai Indians.

CSK and MI are arguably the two best teams in the IPL 2019. However, Chennai are far from invincible, if the poor display by Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis was any proof. They lost to the Kings XI Punjab by six wickets in their last league game, to make matters worse. Now, on Tuesday night, the Chennai Super Kings will be hoping to bounce back with a win against arch-rivals Mumbai in Qualifier 1.

However, it will be a tall order especially since the Mumbai Indians are on song with three wins in the last four league games. In their final league game, MI became the Sunrisers Hyderabad’s saviours. In other words, Mumbai dumped out the Kolkata Knight Riders, SRH’s only real threat for a playoffs booth.

Although Mumbai and Chennai are excellent teams, Mumbai has the better IPL 2019 record. In other words, Mumbai have defeated Chennai in both their league games. But the Chennai Super Kings have the advantage of playing the qualifier at home. Surprisingly, In terms of overall head to head at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Mumbai lead 4-2.

The Chennai Super Kings got off to a flying start in their title defence, but it began to wane as the tournament progressed. Coming to the opening pair of Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis, the Aussie and the South African have been highly inconsistent.

The two have only struck a 50+ partnership once in 14 matches. Fortunately, du Plessis returned to form courtesy a 96-run knock in just 55 balls. However, the title of ‘Mr Consistent’ has to go to MS Dhoni, batting at a strike rate of 139.92. Captain Cool has amassed 368 runs in nine innings. Now, the Chennai Super Kings batting line-up faces off against one of the best bowling attacks, namely Mumbai.

Chennai Super Kings will be further hobbled with the loss of Kedar Jadhav, due to a freak shoulder injury. Jadhav picked up the injury during the Kings XI tie and will be out of action for a while. It also doesn’t help that some of CSK’s foreign players are being recalled to focus on the World Cup.