The return of Chennai's captain MS Dhoni to lead their stuttering campaign in the IPL is eagerly awaited by the team as they prepare for Thursday’s match against Mumbai.

By R Prasad

Dhoni took a blow from Kiwi fast bowler Shane Bond on his arm during his match-winning effort of 66 against Kolkata on March 16 and had been recuperating from that injury.

In his absence Chennai snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, as Dhoni himself put it in one of his newspaper columns, in the tie against the bottom-hugging Punjab in home environs before being whipped soundly on Tuesday night by the superbly charged Bangalore team.

The two straight defeats must have affected the confidence of the Chennai franchise and they would need to buck up with or without Dhoni to take on the star-studded Mumbai led by master blaster Sachin Tendulkar.

Dhoni was earlier expected to return to action from this encounter and will be in Mumbai prior to the tie, but whether he will be able to take the field is not clear. Significantly the Indian squad for next month's World T20 championship in the West Indies is to be picked tomorrow in this metropolis.

Chennai's problems are manifold. They have put all their eggs in the basket of the burly Mathew Hayden to give them a resounding start with his hustle and bustle method and the moment he gets out panic buttons are pressed in their ranks.

Without another Australian Michael Hussey, not to speak of Dhoni's splendid and inspirational presence, the middle order lacks the vibrancy so needed to take advantage of the good starts that have been provided by Hayden.

It's imperative that Chennai come up with a different formula to plug these huge gaps if they are to entertain hopes of stopping the Mumbai juggernaut in front of a very noisy and capacity crowd at the Cricket Club of India.

The Mumbai outfit are on a roll, barring the minor hiccup suffered against league leaders Bangalore.

With Tendulkar in such blazing form and with fine supporting roles played by the younger lot of domestic cricketers like Saurabh Tiwary, Ambati Rayudu, Aditya Tare and Rajagopal Satish, the batting has come good on most occasions.

The fact that the costliest signing of the last auction, West Indian Kieron Pollard, is yet to fire in the fashion that he did in the Champions League and yet Mumbai have been winning on a regular basis is a clear indication that its domestic players are performing well.

Dwayne Bravo too, after joining the franchise with Pollard at the conclusion of his duty for the West Indies, has not gone to town with his guns blazing though he has mixed it up well in bowling.

But a big batting effort from this talented Caribbean all rounder is just round the corner and Chennai must be hoping it won't come at their cost.

The bowling of the Mumbai team has also been a key factor in their good run thus far in the competition.

Lasith Malinga has been delved with powers to stop the opposing batsmen in the ‘death' overs and he has been spot-on with his sling-arm Yorkers.

With Zaheer Khan also continuing to display the sort of form that he displayed right through the earlier part of the season for India, and Harbhajan Singh doing his job cleverly after the first six overs of power play, Mumbai attack had sported a very capable all round look.

In short Chennai have to pull something special out of the hat to stop the rampaging Mumbai team from winning their fourth match in five outings. Can they produce it, with or without Dhoni, is the big question.

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