Cool Chennai vs brash Bangalore

Sabi Hussain

Ranchi, May 21

The high-profile clash between the Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Qualifier 2 of the IPL has assumed greater significance for a variety of reasons. 

Not only will the winner of the all-important fixture earn the right to challenge Mumbai Indians in the final at the Eden Gardens, it will also be a clash between the temperament and leadership skills of the two captains, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virat Kohli. 

The match has already been dubbed as the battle between the Indian Test skipper and the One-day captain. While Kohli’s aggressive and carefree attitude has often landed him in trouble both on-and-off the field, Dhoni’s Chennai has immensely benefitted from his tactical awareness, sound temperament and management skills since the inception of the tournament to make another Qualifier.

The two skippers possess vastly different leadership skills, which add more spice to the contest. The outcome of the match would largely depend on how intelligently the two skippers use their resources to earn a ticket to Kolkata.

Chennai will definitely enjoy a psychological advantage over Bangalore for having beaten them twice in the group stage.  Also, they have played a lot more in Ranchi than Bangalore have — seven games against two — and will be more familiar with the conditions. Chennai is the only side to have won both the Eliminator and the Qualifier 2 in 2012, but went down to Kolkata Knight Riders in the final. Chennai also lead Bangalore 11-7 in head-to-head. However, the only worry for them is the indifferent form of their batsmen, which resulted in four defeats in the last six games. After starting the season with six straight wins, Chennai lost their way in the later stage of the IPL. The return of New Zealander Brendon McCullum to lead his national side against England has only compounded their problems at the top. 

Bangalore’s campaign, on the other hand, has been on an upward swing. After languishing at the bottom of the points table for a while, they found their mojo back, winning four out of the five games, including an all-important Eliminator against Rajasthan Royals.

The scale is slightly titled in favour of Bangalore because of their current form, but such has been the unpredictable and competitive nature of the IPL this season that no team can actually be counted as favourite. It’s just a matter of one batsman clicking or a bowler producing a wicket-taking spell that the team can run away with the game.

If Bangalore enjoy the luxury of having the world’s two most destructive batsmen — Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers — in their ranks, then Chennai have Dwayne Smith, Faf Du Plessis, Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni to counter their challenge. AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli are among the leading run-getters in the IPL-8, accumulating 512 and 493 runs, respectively.

Same is the case with the bowling department of the two sides. If Bangalore have paceman Mitchell Starc (19 wickets) and Yujvendra Chahal (21 wickets), then Chennai boast of old warhorse Ashish Nehra, wily off-spinner R Ashwin and Dwayne Bravo, the holder of Purple Cup with 23 wickets.

The pitch at the JSCA stadium look dry, and the groundsmen are dubbing a total of 150-160 a par score.