BCCI releases IPL schedule, Mumbai Indians to face Chennai Super Kings in opener

Defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) will begin their title defence against Chennai Super Kings (CSK), who they had beaten in last year’s final by 1 run, in Abu Dhabi on September 19 at 7.30pm India time (6.00pm UAE time).

Ending the long wait, the Indian Premier League (IPL) Governing Council (GC) on Sunday announced the schedule for the 2020 season of the league to be held in the UAE. The schedule was released only for the round-robin stage of the tournament. “Venues for the playoffs and the Dream11 IPL 2020 final will be announced later,” the IPL statement said.

There were speculations that due to Covid-related troubles in the CSK camp, the GC might change the general practice of pitting the previous year’s finalists against each other in the season opener. MI and CSK are the IPL’s most successful teams with seven titles between them — four and three respectively.


They also form the IPL's most engrossing rivalries with Mumbai having an upper hand over Chennai. In 28 matches between them so far, MI have won 17 and CSK just 11, making the Rohit Sharma-led team the most successful against MS Dhoni’s outfit. In last year’s final, MI had beaten CSK by just 1 one margin.

The other two venues for the IPL, Dubai and Sharjah, will have their first games on September 20 and September 22 respectively. In all, 24 matches will be held in Dubai, 20 in Abu Dhabi and 12 in Sharjah.