Stage set for grand finale: Sunrisers and Kolkata all geared up for IPL summit clash

CHENNAI: A delicious denouement beckons us on Sunday when two cricketing ideologies not far removed from each other - unlike that of the two major political parties’ of this country that are currently engaged in a fierce diatribe over a long-drawn-out, acrid poll campaign - slug it out with all their might and nous in the quest for the coveted IPL trophy.

Thankfully, both Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders, the contestants of the final, have been sticklers for the time-honoured etiquette that everyone readily identifies this sport with, and carry themselves with such elan and enterprise that would have undoubtedly done the inventor of the sobriquet “gentleman’s game” immensely proud.

Sunrisers will have been greatly buoyed by their all-round effort against Rajasthan Royals on Friday, considering at halfway stage it looked as if the formidable Rajasthan’s batting line-up, even without the redoubtable Jos Buttler, would make light work of the target of 176. That the Pat Cummins-led side stymied the Rajasthan batters through spin, not its strongest suit, will have done wonders for its confidence heading into the final.

Abhishek Sharma, in particular, who had deservedly earned plaudits for his audacious batting at the top, came up with an absolute gem of a spell that caught the Rajasthan batters off-guard. Much like his opening combination with fellow left-hander in Travis Head, Abhishek forged a match-winning association with the ball with Shahbaz Ahmed, as the two left-arm spinners ran rings around the Royals’ batters.

Kolkata has had the upper hand over Hyderabad in the recent head-to-head matches and barely broke a sweat even in the sweltering heat of Ahmedabad as it serenely coasted to an eight-wicket win in Qualifier 1 on Tuesday. Just to reinforce the bench strength it possesses, Rahmanullah Gurbaz acquitted himself well, allaying any fears over the departure of regular opener Phil Salt and the resulting impact it would have at a critical juncture of the tournament. But more significantly what should encourage the two-time winner is the return to form of IPL’s costliest buy and its bowling spearhead Mitchell Starc who returned impressive figures of 4-0-34-3.

Both Shreyas Iyer and Cummins exuded optimism ahead of the final with the latter crediting the youngsters in his side for bringing about a remarkable resurgence after the ignominy of finishing at the bottom of the pile last season.

“It’s been huge. We have quite an experienced bowling line-up, including (Jaydev) Unadkat and Bhuvi (Bhuvneshwar Kumar). Also, so many youngsters have come through and have won us games by themselves, like Nitish (Reddy) and Abhishek (Sharma).

“We also have guys who have been away from the Indian set-up, but they have been fantastic. So, that’s been the story of our team,” observed Cummins.

Elaborating on his approach to captaincy, the World Cup-winning skipper said, “All the data analytics are tools to be used. It’s just another factor in the decision-making process. We play a lot of T20 games, but the two games are not exactly the same. It’s different wickets and opposition, and data could take you only so far.

“So, I think you still need to back your gut feeling and intuition. We have lots of experience around our squad, like head coach Daniel Vettori. So, you need to balance between the objective data that you gather and what you are feeling out there.”