Sharjah: The IPL clash between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium framed by its Ring of Fire lights on Friday is likely to be a battle of world-class spinners on both sides. The two teams between them have got five leading spin bowlers and it will be a treat for the fans to watch the best in the business employing all their skills to trick and trap the batsmen.

What better sight can there be than two great off-spinners such as Harbhajan Singh for Mumbai and Ravichandran Ashwin for Chennai battling it out to prove who is the best for the team? Both can run through any batting line up. Besides these two, there are also match-winning spinners such as West Indies leg-spinner Samuel Badree and left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja for Chennai to call upon.

If left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha also plays for Mumbai, the obvious question would be who among all these tweakers will spin a web around the batsmen.

Harbhajan and Ojha are yet to strike form for Mumbai, as is Ashwin for Chennai.

Yet, Jadeja, after his match-turning four-wicket spell for Chennai in their seven-run win against Rajasthan Royals on Wednesday, has shown how to operate on a Dubai wicket and succeed.

The morale of the Mumbai Indians is low after successive defeats to Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore. If they lose to Chennai, it could be tough for them to recover; the confidence with which they came into the tournament being the reigning champions has already been dented.

According to information from the Mumbai Indians camp, their team owner Nita Ambani flew down from Mumbai on her private jet on Wednesday and gave a pep talk to the team. The team’s performance in this edition of the IPL clearly shows that Mumbai have not been able to find the right replacement for the retired Sachin Tendulkar. Though the legendary batsman is still in the dugout as an icon, what’s vital are top-class performances from someone in the team to compensate for Tendulkar’s absence from the XI.

Australia’s Mike Hussey, the top-scorer in the IPL 2013 edition, was tipped to fill Tendulkar’s shoes, but unfortunately he looks to be out of touch. Strangely, Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma, who opens for India in T20 matches, has so far opted to bat in the middle order.

Hussey, Sharma, Kieron Pollard and Corey Anderson need to rise to the challenge and post a good total as they have a bowling side led by Zaheer Khan, Lasith Malinga and the spinners to gain the upper hand.

However, Chennai, in their eagerness to extend their winning run, will go full-out in all departments of the game. It will be a match in which the skills of all the players in both the teams will be put to the test and the team that will emerge triumphant will be the one that has the greatest belief in their abilities to deliver.