CSK all the way likely

Warriors to miss Mathews Chennai: The team that is desperate not to finish at the bottom of the table this time round, is poised to suffer a major setback ahead of their next engagement. Being led by Sri Lankan Angelo Mathews, and the Island-nation players barred from playing in Chennai, Pune Warriors India will have to go with a stop-gap skipper when they take on Chennai Super Kings here on Monday. Given the compulsions, the mantle may fall either on Ross Taylor or Yuvraj Singh. The host team must consider themselves lucky for the miraculous last-ball win over Royal Challengers Bangalore on Saturday. However, they are expected to have it relatively easy against the Warriors, who are languishing at eighth position in the table with three losses and a win. However, there is no room for complacency because Pune has match winners in Yuvraj, Taylor and the man in form Robin Uthappa. In Aaron Finch, they have an opener capable of tearing apart any new-ball attack. But Pune's problem is none of them have shown any consistency so far. Most tragically, they failed to click as an entity which was one of the reasons why they have continued to disappoint. The consolation win over Rajasthan Royals is hardly anything substantial when they have to reckon with the awesome depth in Chennai. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ashok Dinda have been expensive with the new ball as well as in the closing stages. Mathews won't be available on Monday and Mitchell Marsh has looked more of a stop-gap arrangement. The fight has been shown only by the leg-spin of Rahul Sharma and Yuvraj's left-arm spin. It will be a tough choice between Luke Wright and Steven Smith for a possible replacement to the regular skipper. CSK batting too hasn't shown any signs to worry, with each of their batsman getting among the runs with one or more decent knocks. Mike Hussey, Murali Vijay and Mahendra Singh Dhoni have a half-century each under their belt, while Suresh Raina, S Badrinath and Ravinder Jadeja scored useful 30s in the last match against Bangalore. By all accounts, Chennai begins as the overwhelming favourite.