This is it.
The final game promises to be an exciting match up. The last time these two teams met, the sloggers chased (almost successfully) the record highest score. It was an orgy of gorgeous strokes from the batsmen. Both teams have been in a pretty good form and should be a fun game. No target will be safe with either side as both teams are packed with stroke makers.
The toss should not be a huge factor as the teams have been successful with both chasing and setting a target.
Teams
Sloggers
Travis, Vishan, Barry, Pankaj, Subbu, Shabbir, Troy, Francis, Ram and Zubin
The sloggers lose their strike bowler in Karthik for this one. He injured his already bummed knee and is out of cricket for a while. He has been the best bowler of the tournament so far and the Sloggers will miss him sorely especially when they try to take early scalps. Troy should fill the void and they also add Rambo who can bowl a right line. Zubin gets his first game of the tournament with the Sloggers as he gets back from DC. He should add some depth to the batting and is one of the better fielders in the club.
The big three (Skipper, Barry and Pankaj bhai) in the batting department are in great form and the team should look build their innings around them. The ploy of opening with Travis and Vishan has been pretty good so far and has added depth to the middle order.
Watch out for Travis. He's been the best batsman of the tournament so far. He can be very destructive once he gets his eye in and we should really look to get him early.
Royal Lions
Mark, Munna, Lazar, Misa, Sachin, Naveen, Sankar, Ricky, Allan and Lyle.
We got Ricks Allan and Lyle from the pool. Our batting's been really strong so far and Ricky should add to the depth. We've been the most disciplined team with the ball . Munna has not had a good stint with the ball in the tournament and should look to be a little more disciplined when he opens the bowling (warm ups perhaps?).
Sachin and Misa have been very strong in the middle order while Lazar and Munna have found their mojo back in the top order. I've sucked for most of the tournament with the bat (Actually, I am pretty sure I've been the worst batsman so far) and hopefully will bat a lil more sensibly this Sunday.
Watch out for Mark. He is the big match player who featured in both the previous finals with a combined score of 166.
Key match up: The batsmen Vs the batsmen. I have a feeling that this will be a slog fest with a bunch of runs from both teams.
If the sloggers keep their extras down they should limit us to a decent score. Trav and Zoob make this a sharp fielding unit and Pankaj bhai should be at his lightening best again. A lot could be decided with a couple of catches held or dropped.
Good luck to both teams. I think we have a little edge here with a little more experience but the game could swing either ways pretty quickly.
See you Sunday...
1 comments:
Amazing once again. Kudos to my lil brother Sankar, the fine author of this blog, for an unbiased and very real analysis and predictions for the HPL Summer 2009 Grand Final.
I agree with the author that Mark, Lazar and Munna are the mainstay of the Lions team; and Misa and Sachin are the pleasant surprises of the tournament.
For Sloggers, Travis and Barry are their back bone. Sloggers should get ample support from Vishan, Shabbir, Rambo and Zubin with the bat and ball. We will definitely miss Karthik, by far the best bowler this year. We all wish him a speedy recovery and hope that he will join us in Victoria for some good cricket.
Yours truly will try his darnest best to provide a solid batting support and consistent glovework behind the stumps for the Sloggers.
The dark horses to watch for are Ricks and Subbu. Both are capable allrounders and can tip the game in their direction.
Cobra (Mark) is the key man that Sloggers must get very early if they want to have fighting chance. Over the last 10 years or so, I have seen Cobra quickly shift the momentum towards his side with some sensible and lusty hitting; and, also, don't forget his ability to bowl a tight spell of pace and cleverly disguised slower ones and cobras that suddenly climb from the short of good length and leave you with only once option: to nick to slips or the wicky.
Good luck to both the teams and let's play a good game of cricket.
We all are looking forward to the post Grand Final Report by the ultimate blogger and club man - Sankar.
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