The Match:
It is the final of the Indian Premier League and will see arguably, the two best teams in the competition take on each other – Royal Challengers Bangalore will play the Chennai Super Kings in the game that will decide which team takes the trophy home.
The Chennai Super Kings have already won the tournament once, that was last year, whereas Bangalore has ended up runner-up once as their best performance in the tournament.
How the two teams match up: The two teams have played thrice in the tournament already. The first time was early in the league stage when Chris Gayle hadn’t yet joined them in the tournament and an 80 from Michael Hussey had won the Super Kings the game. The Royal Challengers Bangalore won their second game in the league stage when they raced off to a paltry target set by Chennai, thanks to the presence of Chris Gayle. Gayle then failed against Chennai in the first Qualifier and Chennai chased down 175 set by the Bangalore side to make it 2-1 this season.
Ground Conditions: It will continue to take turn and slow down as the game progresses which should make the batting difficult for the teams. 160 will be a good score to defend one feels in a pressure final, discounting the antics of Chris Gayle.
The Teams: Bangalore made a bold move to change things around in the previous game, a knock-out against Mumbai Indians. They dropped a batsman and got in a bowler – Syed Mohammad replacing Mohammad Kaif in the playing eleven. And the way Syed Mohammad bowled and the manner in which the pitch plays at the Chepauk, there is no reason to believe that there will be another change made to get Kaif back.
The rest of the order should remain the same, with Mayank Agarwal to open the innings with Gayle and Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers to follow.
The Super Kings may go in with the same 11 as well, unless the captain gets another brainwave and decides to get in an extra spinner in place of Dwayne Bravo. The rest of the side should remain the same with Murali Vijay hoping to find some form here.
Players to look out for: The Chennai Super Kings will hope for some crisp hitting from MS Dhoni while Bangalore will hope that Saurabh Tiwary can find some form in the tournament.
Prediction: Chennai win this and the gut says that it could well be a one-sided match.