Warriors v Chennai, Champions League final, Johannesburg

Dhoni's Chennai seek victory for one last time

The Preview by Sriram Veera in Johannesburg

September 26, 2010

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Match facts

Sunday, September 26
Start time 1730 (1530 GMT)

	The Champions League final will be this Chennai outfit's last competitive game ahead of the IPL player auction in November © AFP Enlarge
Related Links Players/Officials: MS Dhoni | Davy Jacobs Matches: Warriors v Chennai Super Kings at Johannesburg Series/Tournaments: Champions League Twenty20 Teams: Chennai Super Kings | India | South Africa | Warriors

Big Picture

It's tempting to bill the final as the clash of captains: Davy Jacobs v MS Dhoni. It makes sense too. Jacobs is an interesting character. He's extremely driven and has always wanted captaincy. He thinks it's his destiny to lead this Warriors side. They hadn't won a thing for 18 years until he came along. It's his team. It's his passion, his life. And he is a fiercely ambitious young man.

Jacobs hasn't played a game for South Africa yet but, when asked what his plans are, he said he would like to be the vice-captain to Johan Botha in the Twenty20 international team. And there was no trace of arrogance. He said it as though it was a given and, in his mind, it is. A couple of days ago South Africa's Test, ODI and Twenty20 sides were selected for the home series against Zimbabwe and the tour of the UAE. Jacobs wasn't in them. Rest assured, he won't stop busting his gut till he gets in. He's that kind of a man.

Tonight, after the successful semi-final, he said: "The team that wants it more will win tomorrow." This is where this gets complicated.

If this was just another final, it would not be far-fetched to say that Jacobs desires victory more than Dhoni does. But it's not just another final. It's the last time that this group of players will play together for Chennai and Dhoni has said he wants a perfect farewell. "Emotionally we are quite attached but unfortunately we won't be able to retain the same team. We want to do well as this is the last tournament. The way we have gelled in the last three years [is great]."

Dhoni's leadership has its share of admirers. He tries to ensure that he appears calm in the middle, he knows his teams' weaknesses, he definitely knows its strengths and, like most successful captains, he gets his share of luck.

It will perhaps come down to the pitch then. Jacobs said the Wanderers track will offer pace and bounce and he expects Makhaya Ntini to fire on the big day. But things even out. Dhoni has Doug Bollinger and Albie Morkel, who returned from injury and produced a excellent spell against Royal Challengers Bangalore. The edge in the seam attack will be with Chennai if Morkel can reprise that semi-final performance. He has often failed to be consistent in the Twenty20 format. Chennai's spin attack comprises Muttiah Muralitharan and R Ashwin, Warriors have Nicky Boje and Johan Botha. Advantage Chennai?

And so we come to the batting. Chennai didn't have to face the pace of Dale Steyn in the last game and ended up with a massive total. Can Ntini and co strike fear in their camp? But Chennai do bat deep, at least deeper than Warriors. It's difficult to pick a winner.

Team news

Both teams don't have any injury problems and are likely to go with unchanged sides.

Chennai(probable): 1 M Vijay, 2 Michael Hussey, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 S Badrinath, 5 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 6 S Anirudha, 7 Albie Morkel, 8 Doug Bollinger, 9 R Ashwin, 10 Muttiah Muralitharan, 11 L Balaji

Warriors (probable): 1 Davy Jacobs (capt), 2 Ashwell Prince, 3 Colin Ingram, 4 Justin Kreusch, 5 Mark Boucher (wk), 6 Craig Thyssen, 7 Johan Botha, 8 Nicky Boje, 9 Rusty Theron, 10 Makhaya Ntini, 11 Lonwabo Tsotsobe.

Watch out for ...

Ashwell Prince has been almost anonymous but he can be the guy who turns it on for Warriors in the final. He is the man who walked up his coach last year and said he wanted to open. He starred in the final of both the Pro20 and Pro-40 tournaments. While the attention will be on the explosive Jacobs, it might be Prince who performs the jailbreak against Chennai. His coach Russell Domingo says he has not seen a more determined cricketer than Prince. "He is calm and brings so much stability to this youthful team."

Albie Morkel can make or break the game tomorrow. He bowled fast spell in the last game during which he troubled Bangalore with seam movement and bounce. But Morkel's game can also disintegrate quickly. He is far from consistent and his contest with the Warriors' openers could decide the game.

Quotes

"Nicky Boje has a couple of ODI tons as an opener. And Botha can bat. So I am not worried that Botha is at No 6. It has worked for us so far."
Davy Jacobs, the Warriors captain, on his team's batting line-up

Warriors v Chennai, CLT20 2010, Port Elizabeth

Chennai pip Warriors, both make semi-finals

The Bulletin by Siddarth Ravindran

September 22, 2010

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Chennai Super Kings 136 for 6 (Hussey 50, Vijay 35, Kreusch 3-19) beat Warriors 126 for 8 (Jacobs 32, Ashwin 3-24)
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

	Chennai Super Kings' openers, Michael Hussey and M Vijay, were involved in the biggest stand of the match © AFP Enlarge
Related Links Players/Officials: Ravichandran Ashwin | Michael Hussey | Justin Kreusch Matches: Chennai Super Kings v Warriors at Port Elizabeth Series/Tournaments: Champions League Twenty20 Teams: Chennai Super Kings | India | South Africa | Warriors

It's not often that both contestants of a sporting encounter celebrate at the end of a match. That strange sight was on offer in Port Elizabeth after Chennai Super Kings prevailed over Warriors in a tense league match, paving the way for both teams to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League Twenty20 at the expense of Victoria.

Chennai's chances seemed to have evaporated when they stumbled to 136 after choosing to bat in a must-win match, but on a spin-friendly track their strategy of packing the team with slow bowlers paid off as they tenaciously defended that total to set up an all-IPL semi-final against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Durban.

Briefly, midway through the chase, it looked as though an IPL team would break the hearts of the home crowd for the second day in a row but it was the Chennai fans who faced some panicky moments when Justin Kreusch and Mark Boucher revived the Warriors with a 44-run fourth-wicket stand.

Two Boucher sixes off Shadab Jakati left Warriors needing a gettable 32 off three overs with seven wickets remaining and two set batsmen at the crease. Chennai's edginess was shown by Muttiah Muralitharan's tirade at S Badrinath after a run-out chance was muffled following some kamikaze running between the wickets in the 16th over.

R Ashwin, battered in the Super Over against Victoria, then returned to virtually ensure David Hussey's side will be returning home early. His carrom ball worked to perfection in the 18th over, foxing both Kreusch and Boucher, to swing the game Chennai's way, though a four in between raised the biggest cheer of the day as it confirmed Warriors' qualification - they needed 109 to seal a place in the final four. Chennai's key bowlers, Doug Bollinger and Murali, then held their nerve against Warriors' non-specialist batsmen to preserve their team's 100% record of progressing from the league phase of every tournament they have played in so far.

Victoria would never have felt more confident of making the semi-finals than when Warriors captain Davy Jacobs was batting in his usual thrill-a-minute style to power the chase of a seemingly inadequate target early on. Jacobs survived in the second over when the ball rolled off his bat onto the stumps and Warriors confidently progressed to 38 for 1 in the Powerplays, but Chennai clawed back after that.

Shadab Jakati and Murali choked the runs, before Jacobs fell to a well-judged overhead catch from Michael Hussey at deep midwicket. Three overs later, Suresh Raina's magic arm earned a wicket with his third delivery to further slow down the home team. In seven overs after the Powerplays, Warriors made only 28 and lost two major wickets, pushing the asking rate to double digits. The game then tilted the Warriors' way before Ashwin's intervention proved decisive.

Chennai's bowlers saved the blushes of a highly rated batting unit, which struggled against a disciplined home side. Warriors have five bowlers with international experience in their line-up but it was the sixth, medium-pacer Kreusch, who made the biggest impact. His no-frills wicket-to-wicket bowling fetched him three wickets and ruined the platform Chennai's openers, Hussey and M Vijay, had constructed.

The other impressive Warriors bowler was Johan Botha, one of the tournament's most economical, who again handcuffed the opposition and dismissed Hussey in the 14th over, one ball after he reached his half-century, to change the course of the innings. From what was a potentially threatening 94 for 2, Chennai could only scrape 20 runs in the next five overs, when they should have been launching an all-out attack.

Chennai's openers had made a rock-solid start, setting up their side for what should have been a far more challenging target. Vijay was the dominant partner in a 63-run stand. Hussey was more circumspect early on, knocking the singles around - his first stroke of aggression as in the fifth over, charging down and lofting Lonwabo Tsotsobe towards long-on. A powerful reverse-sweep for four followed off Nicky Boje, before he started peppering his favourite midwicket region. There were only two dot balls in his final 21 deliveries.

His dismissal, however, sandwiching those of Raina and S Badrinath to Kreusch, derailed Chennai. They got going again only in the 19th over, when MS Dhoni clubbed 17 runs off Tsotsobe, including a giant six over midwicket. In a low-scoring encounter, 136 proved enough.

The result was a hard pill to swallow for Victoria, who are eliminated despite losing only one match in the tournament.

Innings Dot balls 4s 6s Powerplay 16-20 overs NB/Wides Chennai Super Kings 45 9 4 37/0 35/2 0/0 Warriors 55 11 3 38/1 41/5 0/0

Siddarth Ravindran is a sub-editor at Cricinfo