Champions League: Warriors and Super Kings battle for title

Warriors, widely perceived to be the best team of the tournament, take on Indian Premier League champions Chennai Super Kings in a most anticipated final today. It has been a most clinical display by both teams against most other teams and both have shown tremendous ability to retaliate when odds are stacked against them and in crucial situations. Home support in the magnificent ‘Bullring’ will definitely spur on the South African champions to put on another fighting performance after a morale-boosting outing against the South Australian Redbacks in the second semi-final of the Champions League at Centurion yesterday.

The South African champions would want to be the champions of the world

Their skipper Davey Jacobs led from the front with a personal score of 61 off 46 deliveries and in the field with delightful fielding and sensible bowling changes and field placements that ensured a good victory against the Redbacks who just did not have the firepower. Fast bowler Lonwabo Tsotsobe took 2 wickets and gave away just 16 runs in his four overs, Rusty Theron and Nicky Boje bowled well as well to restrict the Redbacks to just 145 in their 20 overs in reply to the Warriors’ 176, thanks to the innings by Jacobs and some big blows in the last over by Boje and Justin Kreusch. They will know that they will have their task cut out against their wily opponents from Southern India in a few hours.

The Chennai Super Kings, with the likes of Albie Morkel (who was absolutely unplayable in the bouncy conditions against Bangalore on Friday), Muralitharan, Doug Bollinger and Ravichandran Ashwin are also an excellent bowling unit that rival the Warriors. The Warriors will have to be prepared for the conditions at The Wanderers, which may not suit slow bowling, a point of strength for both sides. Tsotsobe, Theron and Ntini might have to lighten the burden in favourable conditions for the Warriors, whereas Chennai have Albie Morkel and Bollinger to look up to. A lot of runs, a lot of juice and a lot of bounce off the pitch we are to expect from the bullring.

Locals will hope for a run-fest by the impressive top four in the Warriors’ line-up – captain Jacobs, Ashwell Prince, Ingram and lower-order and death batting specialist Mark Boucher. As such, Chennai will aim for early inroads that might expose the lower-middle order, and if even Boucher departs relatively early in the innings, it would ring alarm bells in the home camp.

On the other hand, Dhoni’s team is easily the better side of the two in terms of batting, on paper at least. With all Michael Hussey, Murali Vijay and Suresh Raina in excellent form, a failure in batting would be a big surprise, for fireworks by any one of the these performers could demoralise the opposition to the point of submission, like that of Suresh Raina in the semi-finals. Bangalore were frustrated and down due to the blitzkrieg, yet one expects Warriors to be made up of much sterner stuff. Tsotsobe’s confidence right before the final is a boon for them, and he would aim for an encore.

As will the Indian team of their performance in the final group match against the same opposition, which they won inspite of scoring a meagre 136 at Port Elizabeth. This would be different. And no one would argue that it is not going to be the battle of champions.