Chennai: Someone in charge of hoardings at the MA Chidambaram stadium may know something we don’t, someone with prophetic abilities perhaps.
Upon walking through the main gate of the venue in Chepauk, stuck to the main facade of the stadium itself were posters of Pat Cummins and Shreyas Iyer at either end of a proclamation. It read: ’IPL Final, 2024’.
This was on Friday!
Sunrisers hadn’t yet taken on the Rajasthan Royals in Qualifier 2, and they sure as hell hadn’t yet posted a 36-run victory to make their way to the final. And yet, there that poster was. The prophecy has come true.
Kolkata Knight Riders will indeed take on Sunrisers in the final on Sunday, a clash of the top-two finishers at the end of the league stage.
It’s not often that things work with such synchronicity (they also kicked off their season against each other). This, however, seemed almost inevitable because these two sides have been the most consistent all tournament long.
Sure, neither of them had the start that the Royals ensured, but they didn’t falter towards the end of the league phase as the Royals did - leaving things to circumstance, good nights or bad ones - either.
They were about as consistent as they could have been in a two-month-long tournament, and that brings them to the precipice of a trophy. It will either be Kolkata’s third or it will become Sunrisers’ second.
For Cummins, who has quite the year with triumphs with his national team, it will come down to how his openers deliver yet again. Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma have been the catalyst for their success so far, and it will be so yet again, but to sleep on their experienced bowling unit, which includes Cummins himself, would be imprudent.
Yes, history suggests that they are a better batting side than they are when it comes to defending totals with the ball in hand, but Friday night provides a decent enough sample to show what they truly are capable of.
While Kolkata are much the same in terms of quality, they have the ability to tighten the noose around teams when they are defending scores.
Plus, when Sunil Narine gets going in the power play, it’s not particularly easy for the opposition to get their bearings right. Then there’s the aggression of the Iyers - Venkatesh and Shreyas - followed by Rinku Singh and Andre Russell. That’s some batting unit.
Then they have the spinners in Narine and Varun Chakravarthy.
This explains why when the sides met for the second time in the tournament - Qualifier 1 - a few days ago, Kolkata came away with an eight-wicket win. Moreover, Kolkata, by virtue of that win, got a few extra days off to rest their legs.
Sunrisers, who played on Friday night, don’t have that luxury. In fact, when Cummins entered the pre-final press conference on Saturday, he looked fairly tired. That could have something to do with the humidity, but this is the most pleasant Chennai has been for a few days now, and yet.
These are not easy conditions to master, and they sure aren’t easy to work through and stay focussed on the end goal. However, they only have one more night to power through, and then they’re gold.
In the spirit of prediction, though, the stadium didn’t have a hoarding to suggest who the winner would be. Alas!