Welcome to the Qualifier 1 match of the Indian Premier League between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai, on Tuesday.

Both teams will be desperate for a victory, which will ensure a direct passage to the final at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, on May 24.

While the team that loses the match will get a second opportunity to enter the summit clash by taking on the winners of the May 20 Eliminator at Pune between Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Second Qualifier at Ranchi on May 22.

Chennai will be without dashing opener Brendon McCullum but expect nothing less than a high-octane encounter.

Two-time winners Chennai will have to forge a new opening combination in the high-pressure game following the departure of McCullum to play in the Test series against England commencing on May 21.

With his belligerent stroke-play, the New Zealander has been the franchises highest scorer this season with a tally of 436 runs followed by West Indian Dwayne Smith (325 runs).

Mumbai's bowling is a force to reckon with as Lasith Malinga and left-armer McClenaghan -- easily the find of the season for MI with his swing, pace and bounce -- have forged a deadly combination, grabbing 19 and 14 wickets respectively.

MI's batting, in contrast, has taken on a well-established look and would be difficult to stop once it gets going on a track that generally encourages aggressive stroke-play.

Openers Parthiv Patel and Lendl Simmons, who has notched up an impressive tally of 407 in only 11 out of 14 games, are in excellent nick going into the match.

The duo, thus, appear well-placed to take on the rival new ball formation of left-armer Ashish Nehra, who is the spearhead of Super Kings with 18 wickets, along with Mohit Sharma.

They would be followed by captain Rohit Sharma, big-hitting West Indian Kieron Pollard, the consistent Ambati Rayudu and the ebullient Hardik Pandya.