With being pushed to brace up the fact that it's most probably over for the team and it's making way towards exiting the season, the Chennai Super Kings has been preparing to lock horn with the Mumbai Indians on Friday and one of the crucial matches of the current season would be hosted by Sharjah as the champions are going to battle each other for the second time in the current season. 

While Mumbai Indians has been at a safe place that it won't heavily bother if it gets defeated by Dhoni's army, CSK stands opposite that a defeat could cost an entire season. If CSK loses the match, it's over and it would be having no business in the current season as it would be the first team to exit the season. If it does, CSK would be opening its account in the worst record for the team in the IPL history. 

It's the 13th season of the IPL and no season had witnessed what the current one is witnessing with the state of the CSK, which is tagged as one of the most successful teams in the IPL. At the current state, CSK is at the last spot in the points table and along with the Rajasthan Royals, CSK has recorded seven defeats so far in the current season and it had won only three matches, which is lower than any other teams. 

To have hope and to avoid the worst record of the team, the CSK must need to win all their remaining four matches including today's match to advance towards the play-offs. However, the possibilities are less likely as the CSK would be competing with some of the top teams in the current season. With having back to back defeats and failures to fix the damages and flawed performances, the CSK fans have been mentally prepared to watch the season till its end in the absence of Dhoni's men in yellow. 

CSK had defeated the defending champions MI in the season opener to have a successful opening. However, CSK's successful start didn't last long as in the rest of the matches, the super kings had faced consecutive defeats due to the flawed batting line-up as the top and middle-order batsmen had never put a game to bring the team back to the path of dominance. When Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis are in a decent form, Ambati Rayudu, Kedhar Jadhav, MS Dhoni had never proved the tenacity in putting a big score or in chasing the modest targets. 

Though CSK batted first in the last two games, it has failed to put the top score on the board and as the sequel of such performances, CSK would likely become the first team to exit the season. On the other hand, Mumbai has been strong so far as it has most likely had reserved a berth in the playoffs, and in today's game, Rohit's army would eye to pay back to the CSK for defeating at the tournament opener. 

Armed with the players like Quinton de Kock, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Pandya brothers, Kieron Pollard, Jasprit Bumrah, and captain Rohit Sharma, Mumbai Indians would strick back strongly against the CSK if Dhoni's men tend to keep the damages. If CSK wishes to win and to have a hope of entering the playoffs, the team must revamp its game plans and strategies for team selection and Dhoni should give space for the youngsters to see the 'spark' from them, which could have seen if proper chances were given to them. 

It must fix the gameplans for the remaining matches to finish it better than worse. CSK must try to build a winning momentum at least now to have a delayed resurgence. As the team has got gelled up with Sharjah, it must aim to put a big score on the board to give a shock to MI. Some of the players to watch out for during the current match include Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Faf du Plessis, Quinton de Kock, and Kieron Pollard. 

During the current match, you could witness some of the milestones including -MS Dhoni requires six catches to complete 100 IPL catches for CSK while Ambati Rayudu and Faf du Plessis need two and one fours respectively to complete 300 and 200 IPL fours. Kieron Pollard needs 37 runs to complete 3000 IPL runs and Jasprit Bumrah needs three wickets to complete 100 IPL wickets.