Preview: Rajasthan v Mumbai, Final

 •  Published on
Both teams will also be eager to give a fitting farewell to Tendulkar and Dravid.
Both teams will also be eager to give a fitting farewell to Tendulkar and Dravid. © Cricbuzz

Mumbai will look to lift the CLT20 trophy for the second time and will seek to avenge their loss against Rajasthan in their opening game when they face off against their IPL opponents in the final at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium in Delhi. Meanwhile, the Royals, who have had a superb run in this edition of the tournament so far, registering five wins out of five games, will be hoping for a flawless finish. Both teams will also be eager to give a fitting farewell to two legends of the game, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, who will be representing their franchises for the last time.Rajasthan:Rajasthan are obviously the in-form team, having been unbeaten in the tournament so far. Ajinkya Rahane and Sanju Samson have been brilliant with the bat - the former has scored three successive half-centuries and his dream run means the inaugural Indian Premier League champions have a steady top-order despite Dravid's lean form. Shane Watson showed glimpses of his class in the semi-final against Chennai and the Australian can always be a threat in a big game situation. Stuart Binny is also a crucial member in the middle-order and has also scored a few runs in this tournament while Kevon Cooper's hard-hitting abilities will also come in handy for the Royals. Rajasthan will miss Brad Hodge in the final after he sustained an injury on Friday but the side has enough players to stand up and deliver. Bowling has been the greatest weapon for Rajasthan with Pravin Tambe rocking the oppositions with his wicket-taking spree. Tambe was Man-of-the-Match with 3/10 from four overs in the team's 14-run victory in the semi-final over Chennai and the 42-year-old would once again be a trump-card for Dravid on Sunday. Rajasthan have plenty of seam options and will be counting on the likes of James Faulkner, Vikramjeet Malik, Rahul Shukla, Watson and Cooper, who have done a good job so far, to deliver again.Mumbai:Dwayne Smith has been Mumbai's run-scoring machine in this tournament and it was his scores of 63 against the Lions, 48 against Perth and 59 against Trinidad and Tobago, that has helped the IPL-6 champs into the final. Rohit Sharma too has been in good touch with the bat, coming up with important contributions while the skipper will also be happy with the way Tendulkar and Dinesh Karthik batted against T&T. Both Tendulkar and Karthik looked completely out of sorts in the earlier games before they hit 35 and 33* respectively against the Caribbean side, and their current form augers well for Mumbai. With Pollard in the line-up, who is also in good touch, Mumbai's batting seems to be peaking at the right moment as suggested by the captain. Amongst the Mumbai bowlers, Nathan Coulter-Nile and Pragyan Ojha have the most scalps, although the latter has been a touch expensive. Rishi Dhawan has bowled quite a few tight spells while Harbhajan Singh and Pollard have been decent with the ball. Mitchell Johnson seems to be Mumbai's only worry at the present time as the Australian quick has conceded quite a few and has also not picked up too many wickets.Quotes:What a fitting way it will be for us to send Rahul Dravid off the way he deserves. Hopefully, the fairytale does come true for us because he certainly does deserve it: Shane WatsonI would not say that we are peaking at the right time as I am a little superstitious and there is still one more game to win so looking forward to it: Sachin Tendulkar

ShareTweet

COMMENTS

Move to top