- Sunday, March 02, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Saturday (8) will see a mega clash in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 as the two teams with the most number of crowns — Mumbai Indians (five) and Chennai Super Kings (four) — will lock horns at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
Ahead of the match, Chennai’s Moeen Ali spiced up the rivalry more by comparing the Mumbai-Chennai battles to those between Manchester United and Liverpool in football.
The 35-year-old batting all-rounder, who produced a match-winning four wickets for 26 runs against Lucknow Super Giants in the previous match to give Chennai a much-needed win after they lost the opening game against Gujarat Titans, said in a pre-match conference during his team’s training session at the Wankhede Stadium on Friday (7) that he was “really looking forward” to the game.
“This is a game I really look forward to. These are the two most successful franchises and the fan-following is huge and this is one of the biggest games you can play as a cricketer outside of international cricket,” the England cricketer said.
“In football’s point of view it is like Manchester United playing Liverpool. These are huge games,” he added.
Head-to-head, Mumbai have an edge over Chennai as they won 20 times in their 34 meetings. The two sides have also met in IPL finals four times with Mumbai winning three of them, including a one-run win in 2019.
While Mumbai have won all their five titles under Rohit Sharma, Chennai have won their four under Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Saturday’s match is scheduled to start at 7.30 pm Indian Standard Time.
