IPL 9: Virat Kohli out to Eclipse sunrisers

After 51 days and 59 matches that’s taken us through some roller-coaster rides, breathtaking batting displays, brilliance with the ball and amazing alacrity on the field, IPL-9 will usher in a new champion, and deservingly so.

In Sunday night’s face off between Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore and David Warner’s Sunrisers Hyderabad, a match-up that is strikingly different in terms of potential, performance, pedigree and panache, the two sides have earned the right to contest for their maiden silverware at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.

If the Challengers have risen and risen spectacularly after plumbing the depths through some unbelievable batsmanship by Kohli and AB de Villiers, the Sunrisers have leaned heavily on the stocky shoulders of skipper Warner while being led by an attack that was the envy of the rest.

There in lies the story of IPL-9; a tale of two skippers in Kohli and Warner, men consumed with passion, men bridling with aggression and men pushing the standards of excellence.

If Kohli at a mind-boggling 919 runs from 15 games is on the cusp of greatness and glory and nearing what was considered an impossible feat — 1000 runs in a season — then Warner is second only to Kohli, single-handedly leading the Eagles wth 779 from 16. The fact that Kohli has reeled off four hundreds this season after going without a single one in the previous eight, reveals the chasm.

Yet, all that will pale into insignificance — for the inspirational and imperious leaders of the two sides — if they aren’t able to lift their teams for the final push and past the finish line to lay their hands on the glittering trophy.

Man to man, the Challengers, not simply because they are on a roll having won seven of their last eight games, hold the edge against Sunrisers, who after a solid start to their campaign, on the back of sharp attack led by Ashish Nehra, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mustafizur Rahman, have been forced to take the longer route to clinch their final berth.

The Challengers after a four-day break are rested, ready and raring to get into the ring but a drained Sunrisers will have to feed off their emotional win from 24 hours ago after slaying the Lions in Delhi on Friday.

While the Challengers riding a crest have found success in their winning combination, the Sunrisers have been depleted by the absence of veteran Nehra. The hamstring pull that ruled out Bangladesh’s Mustafizur, him of the astonishing ability to fire in consistently to the blockhole at the death, in Friday night’s slugfest against the Gujarat Lions would have pulled down a lesser team but with Trent Boult, coming in from the cold and not having played a single game in two and half months, filling in admirably, Warner found the needed ammunition to guide his team into the final. The big question is whether left-armer Mustafizur, one of the fantastic talents in world cricket going around, will have recovered for the big match but if anything, Warner’s powerful brand of cricket can ignite the fire in his team whose attack has been shepherded brilliantly by Purple Cap holder Bhuvneshwar with 23 sticks from 16 games.

While Kohli has been singularly successful with the willow, he has had strong support from de Villiers, third on the batting charts and back-up from KL Rahul, in the top-15. Though Shane Watson hasn’t performed with the bat, the all-rounder is joint second in the bowling list along with team-mate Yuzvendra Chahal with 20 wickets apiece. Given the nature of the beast, individual brilliance can carry the team through the night but Warner’s problem, pumped as he was after Qualifier 2, will be the lack of showing from a middle-order boasting the likes of Moises Henriques, Yuvraj Singh with also opening partner Shikhar Dhawan going off the boil.

But things can change dramatically in T20 as SRH’s Bipul Sharma showed on Friday night as did ABD and Iqbal Abdulla against the Lions in Qualifier 1. A sea of red will swarm the Lions in their citadel. Who will be the last one standing