The first qualifier of the IPL 2019 will be played between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings at the Chepauk in Chennai. Both the teams topped the points table and hence will get two chances to make it into the finals of the tournament.

Mumbai Indians have been amazing as far as bowling and batting is concerned, given that they have gotten better with time and even captain Rohit Sharma got some form under his belt before the all-important playoffs. Despite a fragile middle order, MI have gained much from lower order batting of Pandya brothers, especially Hardik and Kieron Pollard.

In the bowling side, Jasprit Bumrah and Lasith Malinga have been the best bowlers whether at the start or at the death. Given that Rahul Chahar, the leg-spinner has done better in middle overs, Rohit Sharma has had some good backup when it comes to his fast bowlers. This might be a good spot to bring in Ben Cutting in the mix, given his tendency to bowl amazingly disguised slower balls and off-cutters, which are conducive to the slow Chepauk pitch.

Chennai is struggling with the form of their batsmen, especially Watson and Rayudu who has just had one inning of substance in the whole tournament. Otherwise, it has been just MS Dhoni scoring runs for them, which has become a problem for them. Add an injury to Kedar Jadhav, which has ruled him out of the remainder of the season, meaning CSK needs to bring in another batsman as cover.

Most probably, that will be Dhruv Shorey and Dhoni might also use him wisely by batting him higher up the order as one can only back non-performers to a limit and in such a crunch game such failures could be harmful to the team.

Mumbai Indians Predicted Playing XI:
Rohit Sharma (C), Quinton de Kock (WK), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Ben Cutting, Rahul Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Lasith Malinga,

Chennai Super Kings Predicted Playing XI:
Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (C&WK), Dhruv Shorey, Ambati Rayudu, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Deepak Chahar, Imran Tahir, Harbhajan Singh