New Delhi: With virtually one semifinal spot up for grabs in Group A, IPL champions Mumbai Indians will fancy their chances when they take on the bottom-placed Perth Scorchers in a do-or-die battle in their final round-robin match of the Champions League Twenty20 here tomorrow.
Mumbai Indians are currently at the third position with six points in the points table, while Otago Volts are placed second with 10 points with two victories under their belt and an abandoned game from three ties.
Sitting at the top of Group A table with 12 points, are Rajasthan Royals, who have already made the last four stage.
The Mumbai side will have to play out of their skins tomorrow to not just earn full marks to make it 10 and come at par with Otago Volts but also finish with a good run-rate, so that if the New Zealand outfit lose their next tie there is a chance for the Indian franchise to make the cut on the basis of a better run average.
Rohit Sharma's side got a big boost of confidence after a comfortable seven-wicket win over Highvels Lions in their previous encounter and they could not have asked for a weaker opponents than Perth Scorchers in a crucial game tomorrow.
There is no doubt that a strong Mumbai side would do everything in their power to post a comprehensive victory agianst the Scorchers, if Otago lose their last league tie against Rajasthan Royals to be held in Jaipur tonight.
Even though the star-studded Mumbai outfit did not have an ideal start to the tournament as they suffered a defeat at the hands of Rajasthan Royals in the opening match before the second tie was washed out, they came back strongly to stamp their authority against the Lions.
Having restricted the Lions to a meagre 140 for 5, Mumbai reached the modest target with nine balls to spare and they would look for nothing less than a repeat of that performance where both their batsmen and bowlers fired in unison.
The bowlers, despite the absence of their match-winning pacer Lasith Malinga, did well with Mitchell Johnson, Harbhajn Singh and Pragyan Ojha successfully putting breaks to the opponents' scoring besides chipping in with important wickets
