While Kolkata Knight Riders is confident of continuing its consistent performance to clinch the maiden IPL title, Chennai Super Kings on the other hand is eyeing to make the third straight win in the IPL Finals.
Chennai Super Kings Vs Kolkata Knight Riders
Venue: MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai
Date: 27 May 2012, Day / Night 20-20 over
Time: 20.00 hrs (14.30 GMT)
After a long one-and-a-half months intense battle, the IPL fondly called the ‘Manoranjan Ka Baap’ is going to end with the clash of M S Dhoni led Chennai Super Kings and Gautam Gambhir’s Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the finals at Chennai. While it is third straight final for CSK in IPL, Shahrukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders made the way to finals for the first time in the fifth edition of IPL. For both the teams the journey to finals has been long and tough, and there were moments initially. When it all seemed lost; yet neither of the two teams ever gave up hope, or indeed the fight.
There can never be favourites for a final, especially for an extended tournament like this. Gambhir was quite right when he said: it's absolutely 50:50. The battle between these two often boils down to how their slow bowlers perform; and, amazingly, in this area, too, they are almost evenly matched. While CSK have R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shadab Jakati and Suresh Raina to carry out different roles, KKR have the likes of Iqbal Abdulla, Yusuf Pathan and Shakib Al Hasan.
One man, who gives a slight edge to KKR is Sunil Narine. The West Indian mystery spinner has been unbelievable, if not unplayable, this season, taking 24 wickets with an economy rate of 5.20. Hardly any batsman has been able to read him and he is going to be the critical player on Sunday.
The one area where CSK may just be a little ahead is the depth in their batting. The entire line-up has come good over the two playoff games and with anchors like Hussey, S Badrinath and Dhoni to guide the ship at different stages of the innings, hitters like M Vijay, Suresh Raina, Dwayne Bravo and Albie Morkel can really express themselves.
KKR, on the other hand, are just a little too dependent on Gambhir. The skipper has scored a whopping 588 runs and the best bowlers of the IPL have termed him as the batsman of the tournament.
The others, including Jacques Kallis, Pathan, Brendon McCullum and Manoj Tiwary, haven't really made the big impact yet; Dhoni knows that if he can get Gambhir early, he will hold the edge. The CSK skipper is likely to unleash Ben Hilfenhaus and Ashwin on him and the winner of this scuffle may well have the last laugh too.
Chennai Super Kings squad
MS Dhoni (Captain, Wicket-Keeper), S Anirudha, R Ashwin, S Badrinath, GJ Bailey, DE Bollinger, DJ Bravo, F du Plessis, BW Hilfenhaus, MEK Hussey, RA Jadeja, SB Jakati, Joginder Sharma, S Randiv, KMDN Kulasekara, VY Mahesh, JA Morkel, A Mukund, SK Raina, WP Saha (Wicket Keeper), SB Styris, S Tyagi, K Vasudevadas, G Vignesh, M Vijay
Kolkata Knight Riders squad
G Gambhir (Captain), S Ladda, L Balaji, R Bhatia, MS Bisla, DB Das, M de Lange, BJ Haddin (Wicket Keeper), Iqbal Abdulla, CS Jani, JH Kallis, B Lee, BB McCullum (Wicket Keeper), EJG Morgan, SP Narine, YK Pathan, JL Pattinson, SV Samson, PJ Sangwan, I Saxena, Shami Ahmed, Shakib Al Hasan, LR Shukla, RN ten Doeschate, MK Tiwary, JD Unadkat
