RC CUT CHENNAI TO SIZE

Johannesburg: Lalit Modi may have first conceived the idea of a grand Twenty20 spectacle that the Indian Premier League (IPL) is, but one still has to wonder who is writing the script.
Last year, the team that wasn’t even considered an underdog, criticised for poor player-selection, accused of spending the least among eight franchisees, won the trophy. This year, two teams that had ended up as 2008’s wooden-spooners have done the unthinkable. Royal Challengers and Hyderabad last year’s No. 7 and 8 will clash in the final of IPL 2009.
The two IT cities have surprised the bookmakers which make this T20 extravaganza so exciting and, for the second year in succession, have ensured that anything is possible in this extremely unpredictable format.
It is hard to project a player-versus-player contest here. Will it be Adam Gilchrist’s willow-power against Praveen Kumar and Jacques Kallis’ new ball attack? Rohit Sharma’s finesse or Andrew Symonds’ belligerent hitting against Anil Kumble’s precision? This could also be a battle for youngsters like Virat Kohli and Manish Pandey competing with T Suman and Azhar Bilakhia. On the face of it, this could be anyone’s trophy. The atmosphere at the Wanderers can get quite intimidating when close to 50,000 spectators will fill up the stands.
On paper, Hyderabad definitely look the better side. The loss to Royal Challengers at Centurion on Thursday notwithstanding, they have a top-order boasting of some of the biggest names this format can think of. Even if one of these players — Gilchrist and Gibbs or Symonds and Sharma bats to his full potential, it will be enough to wipe out any opposition. Gilchrist showed precisely that in the first semifinal, cracking one of the best T20 knocks ever.
For Royal Challengers too, the batsmen have been at the helm in the last few matches. In fact, it has been at least one of the top-order men in every game delivering the goods. Ross Taylor did it in a crunch match against the Knight Riders when he struck a 41-ball 81 to take the match away singlehandedly from the opposition. Kallis and Utthappa demolished Mumbai in a partnership that was absolutely dominating. Virat Kohli has been consistent and Manish Pandey, of course, became the first Indian to score a century in IPL the other day.
Scoring runs, as aggressively as possible, will be the key to the game on a track that hardly has anything for the bowlers.