Having got off to a wondrous start with four consecutive wins, the Super Kings left it till their very last game to secure a semifinal slot. Through an admixture of seeming complacency and more obvious inconsistency, they threatened to undo the fantastic early work of the now unavailable Australian duo of Matthew Hayden and Mike Hussey until a third left-hander, Suresh Raina, bailed them out with a match-winning knock against Deccan Chargers.
Dhoni's band will take heart from having put it across Yuvraj Singh's Kings XI in both the home and away league face-offs, but those results won't impact Saturday's showdown one bit. Where the Super Kings have stuttered and stumbled as the competition has progressed, Kings XI have grown from strength to strength, turbo-charged by the brilliance of Australian opener Shaun Marsh, the Orange Cap holder after a string of exceptional performances.
The left-handed Marsh has been at the forefront of the Kings XI charge, forming the most potent link in a chain of performing overseas stars that also includes James Hopes, Luke Pomersbach, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene. Where the batting has for the most part been spearheaded by the imports, the bowling wears an almost totally indigenous look marked by variety and versatility.
Between them, S Sreesanth, Irfan Pathan and Vikram Rajvir Singh have lent a decisive cutting edge that will test the Super Kings' left-orientated batting line-up no end. Sreesanth and Pathan, who has used swing to great effect both in wicket-taking and economy stakes, have invariably struck early in their opening spells; Super Kings will desperately need to avoid telling early damage, and particularly minus Stephen Fleming, the openers' task will become that much more important.
The Super Kings possess one of the more damaging middle-orders in the tournament, but the middle-order has also exhibited a propensity to crumble at the first hint of pressure. With Raina as the lynchpin, the likes of Dhoni, S Badrinath and Albie Morkel have had their moments, but they will be put through a stern test by leggie Piyush Chawla, who has relished batsmen coming after him and foxing them with his impressive bag of tricks.
Like the Super Kings, the Kings XI top-order is also distinctly left-heavy. Makhaya Ntini has enjoyed bowling to the left-handers though Muttiah Muralitharan is more at ease against the right-handers. As such, the parts played by Manpreet Gony, Lakshmipathi Balaji and perhaps Palani Amarnath -- the Super Kings haven't lost a game in which the last-named has played -- could well be decisive. A battle of the Kings, then, pitting India's one-day captain against his deputy. It only gets better and better!