Mumbai face uphill task against Perth

The final two matches in the league stage of the CLT20 at the Kotla here on Wednesday offer interesting permutations and combinations as to who will join former champions Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals in the semi-final stage of the tournament. And reigning IPL champions Mumbai Indians seem to be the team on the most slippery ground in that context as their chance for a semi-final berth may well have been over even before the match begins on Wednesday afternoon, depending on the result of the Group A game between Royals and Otago Volts in Jaipur on Tuesday. Even if MI are provided a lifeline by the Royals, they will need to get their act together and beat the Perth Scorchers by a comprehensive margin to leapfrog Volts on better run-rate in the points table. In Group B though, the second semi-finalist will only be decided after the evening game between Trinidad & Tobago and CSK with the West Indian side going thorough if they manage to produce an upset win over the in-form team. A loss, however, will leave them level on eight points each with Titans and the run-rate will come into the picture. What favours T&T over Titans to go through is that they are well ahead on run rate and even if they lose a close game to CSK, they are the team favoured to go through. A good crowd is expected on the day as the afternoon game may well be Sachin Tendulkar’s last appearance for Mumbai Indians although his bat has not contributed much in their campaign so far with scores of 5 and 15. The 40-year-old had some rigorous training sessions on Monday and Tuesday and looked focused to whip up some old magic. The loss in their opening game to Royals and the abandoned game against Volts has hit them hard and the dream of achieving a double of IPL, CLT20 titles may elude them this time. The services of Lasith Malinga have been missed by skipper Rohit Sharma but it is the batting department that will have to rise to the occasion. The second match promises to a keen contest with the likes of Ravi Rampaul and mystery spinner Sunil Narine leading the bowling for T&T against the free flowing CSK batsmen. They defended a low total against Brisbane Heat and have managed to post 150-plus totals in their last two games and may well be hitting form just at the right time. However, the dominating performances that the M.S. Dhoni led side have dished out in their three games so far, T&T will have to play out of their skins to match their rivals. Today’s matches MI vs Perth, 4PM CSK vs T&T, 8PM Live on Star Sports