When Sunrisers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings, the teams that finished at the top of the league standings of the Vivo-Indian Premier League, met at the Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday, it was billed ‘a battle between captain cool Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his cooler counterpart Kane Williamson’.
While both leaders made little impact with the willow, two other international captains emerged as stand-out performers. Afghanistan skipper Rashid Khan gave Sunrisers hope of defending their total before South Africa captain Faf du Plessis ran away with the game for Chennai Super Kings.
As both teams return to the venue on Sunday for the big final, fans will be hoping for yet another intense tussle.
While Super Kings will be the fresher of the two, having rested and trained in the city for four days. Sunrisers will hope to carry the momentum after stunning Kolkata Knight Riders in its backyard on Friday.
Despite the reputation of being former champions, both Super Kings and Sunrisers were more than a bit edgy at the start of the season seven weeks ago. While Super Kings was returning to the IPL after serving a two-year suspension in the aftermath of the 2013 IPL spot-fixing scandal, Sunrisers was forced to elevate Williamson as captain following David Warner's suspension by Cricket Australia for his involvement in the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa.
The effects of the setbacks were hardly seen on the field as both teams remained in the top half of the table right through the tournament. Moreover, Dhoni and Williamson had their stand-out seasons with the willow, thus helping teammates take time to settle.
While Dhoni would be hoping for his army of veterans to sizzle one last time, Williamson would be banking on Rashid and Shikhar Dhawan to keep up the good work along with the best pace unit of the tournament.
While Super Kings would be hoping to make early inroads into the Sunrisers batting order and expose a fragile middle, Dhoni's men will bank on in-form Ambati Rayudu to tackle Rashid.
Besides Rashid, Sunrisers will be hoping for lead pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar to rise to the occasion.
If the past seasons have any bearing on the game, the team in yellow will enjoy an advantage. After all, it will be Dhoni's boys' seventh final in the nine seasons it has featured in the IPL.
The most successful IPL outfit will thus hope to join Mumbai Indians in the club of teams with three IPL titles.
Sunrisers has also enjoyed an impressive run since making their debut in 2013. Williamson's warriors will be eyeing to repeat its 2016 title-winning performance by pipping the favourites.
Irrespective of the outcome, fans will be hoping for a thriller as on Tuesday. If both teams live up to the expectations, it will be a fitting end to yet another dazzling season of the IPL.
Teams (From):
Chennai Super Kings : Mahendra Singh Dhoni (C), Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Faf du Plessis, Harbhajan Singh, Dwayne Bravo, Shane Watson, Ambati Rayadu, Deepak Chahar, K M Asif, Kanish Seth, Lungi Ngidi, Dhruv Shorey, Murali Vijay, Sam Billings, Mark Wood, Kshtiz Sharma, Monu Kumar, Chaitanya Bishnoi, Imran Tahir, Karn Sharma, Shardul Thakur, N Jagadeesan, David Willy.
Sunrisers Hyderabad : Kane Williamson (C ), Shikhar Dhawan, Manish Pandey, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Wriddhiman Saha, Siddharth Kaul, Deepak Hooda, Khaleel Ahmed, Sandeep Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Shreevats Goswami, Ricky Bhui, Basil Thampi, T Natarajan, Sachin Baby, Bipul Sharma, Mehdi Hasan, Tanmay Agarwal, Alex Hales, Carlos Brathwaite, Rashid Khan, Shakib Al Hasan, Mohammad Nabi and Chris Jordan.
Match commences at 7 pm.
