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After the first week of the Champions League 2011, the Royal Challengers Bangalore had lost two matches, while the Mumbai Indians had won two by the skin of their teeth. Neither side looked particularly world-beating then, and there was a good chance of none of them making it even to the semi-final stage. And yet, ten days after that, they are both contesting the final. Mumbai have got there through a succession of victories in close matches, and Bangalore have got there after their top-order batting has rediscovered its mojo with a vengeance.
Bangalore: It's been an adrenaline fuelled rush to the finals for Bangalore, and all of it has been provided by Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli and Tillakaratne Dilshan. In the three wins Bangalore have put together on the trot, each of them have had sizeable contributions. The fact that Bangalore have topped 200 each of those three times and won chasing 200 in their last two outings, has been an emphatic statement of their batting strength, but it has also masked their bowling frailties. Daniel Vettori apart, not a single bowler has looked capable of stemming the run-flow, and if Bangalore's top-order batting fails to click, there is no Plan B to fall back on. It is worth noting though, that when you Plan A works so spectacularly well, the lack of a Plan B might not be a serious disadvantage - which is exactly how it has worked out for Bangalore.
Mumbai: They are in the final, they have won 3 out of 4 completed matches, but they still haven't registered a convincing win. That will count for little if they win the trophy, but it might make a difference to the confidence level ahead of the big match. Mumbai's main problem have been their batsmen, while the bowlers led by Malinga have time and again rescued the team. The star of the show has undoubtedly been Lasith Malinga, who incredibly enough leads both batting and bowling averages for Mumbai. Kieron Pollard and James Franklin have contributed a bit with both bat and ball, but apart from them, there is nobody who has made any contribution for more than one match. However, the key for Mumbai has been that they have always found someone to pull them over the line - even if the personnel have varied from match to match.
Contrasting Contests:
At one end of the spectrum, is the mouth-watering clash between Lasith Malinga and the Gayle-Dilshan-Kohli combination. While Malinga has been the bowler of the tournament, Bangalore have had the best top-order of the tournament. It takes only one mistake for a batsman to get out, but will Malinga be able to induce three - or at least two - of them early on in the innings to neutralize Bangalore's powerhouse top-order? It's a classic immovable object versus irresistible force contest.
At the other end, is the battle between the Mumbai batsmen and the Bangalore bowlers. No Mumbai batsman has topped 150 runs in the tournament, and their strike-rates have been pretty poor too. On the other hand, Bangalore's bowlers have been extremely profilgate, leaking runs whether they are bowling first or second, with a new ball or old, pace or spin. Pollard, Franklin, Rayudu, Blizzard, Kanwar and Symonds have together scored 437 runs for Mumbai, at a none-too-impressive average of 18.21 and a much below-par strike-rate of 105.56. For Bangalore, Vettori, Bhatkal, Nannes, S Aravind and Gayle have bowled 76 overs, while conceding a whopping 743 runs at almost 10 runs an over. The bowling average is also a very high 57.15.
One thing is for sure in this final - one set of stats for the stronger and weaker half of both teams will undergo big changes.
Final Word:
Bangalore will go in as favourites by a slight margin, if only because of the awesome form of their batsmen. Moreover, even though their bowlers don't have flattering figures, in Dirk Nannes and Daniel Vettori they have at least proven international performers, who can be expected to raise their game for a big occasion.
| Teams: | |
| Royal Challengers Bangalore (From): Daniel Vettori(c), Sreenath Aravind, Mayank Agarwal, Abhimanyu Mithun, Arun Karthik(w), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chris Gayle, Mohammad Kaif, Virat Kohli, Dirk Nannes, Asad Pathan, Saurabh Tiwary, Syed Mohammad Jamaluddin, Raju Bhatkal, Johan van der Wath | |
| Mumbai Indians (From): Harbhajan Singh(c), Yuzvendra Chahal, Kieron Pollard, Suryakumar Yadav, Aiden Blizzard, James Franklin, Davy Jacobs, Lasith Malinga, Ambati Rayudu(w), Tirumalsetti Suman, Abu Nechim, Andrew Symonds, Rajagopal Sathish, Dilhara Fernando, Sarul Kanwar |
