IPL Fianl between MUMBAI INDIANS VS CHENNAI SUPER KINGS
SQUADS
MUMBAI INDIANS
Rohit Sharma (C), Lasith Malinga, Kieron Pollard, Ambati Rayudu (W), Harbhajan Singh, Aditya Tare, Jasprit Bumrah, Marchant de Lange, Pawan Suyal, Shreyas Gopal, Lendl Simmons, Pragyan Ojha, Mitchell McClenaghan, Abhimanyu Mithun, Aiden Blizzard, Akshay Wakhare, Nitish Rana, Siddhesh Lad, Hardik Pandya, Jagadeesha Suchith, Unmukt Chand, Vinay Kumar, Parthiv Patel, Colin Munro, Ben Hilfenhaus, Alex Hales
CHENNAI SUPER KINGS
MS
Dhoni (C) (W), Ashish Nehra, Baba Aparajith, Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Bravo, Dwayne Smith, Francois du Plessis, Ishwar Pandey, Matt Henry, Mithun Manhas, Mohit Sharma, Pawan Negi, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Samuel Badree, Suresh Raina, Ronit More, Michael Hussey, Rahul Sharma, Kyle Abbott, Ankush Bains, Irfan Pathan, Pratyush Singh, Andrew Tye, Eklavya Dwivedi
The two-most successful T20 teams in the world - Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings - will battle to be crowned champions of Pepsi IPL 2015.
Mumbai Indians’ journey to the final has been a fascinating story. They were all but written off after the first two weeks of the competition when they lost their first four matches of the season and lay at the bottom of the table. However, they rose like phoenix from the ashes, finished the league stage of the competition at second place, and took the direct route to the title clash after winning the first of the Playoff matches. Coach Ricky Ponting has maintained through the season that if his side played their best cricket, they would be very hard to beat. That happened in Qualifier 1 against CSK, when every player played his role to near perfection; there were contributions from the top four – with one of them playing well into the second half, and each of the specialist bowlers kept pegging away at the opposition wickets at regular intervals.
That the Chennai Super Kings will be playing in an IPL final for the sixth time itself illustrates how consistent they have been over the years. Though they are the defending Champions League T20 champions, an IPL title has eluded them for three seasons; they won the IPL title in successive years in 2010 and 2011, but have since been pipped at the post in two finals. This season, CSK have had to take the long route to progress to the Final. They occupied the top slot in the standings at the end of the regular league season, but were outclassed by MI in all departments in the first Playoff match and had to get to the better of Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Eliminator to make it to the title clash.
MI begin favourites; they are the form team having won 8 of their last nine matches. The four-day break since booking their berth in the Final has given them enough time to recharge their batteries and come energised for this high-stakes contest. For most part of the season, CSK have rode on two factors – Brendon McCullum’s destructive batting and familiar conditions at home. MS Dhoni and co. will need to come up with a special performance, given they will be without the services of their dashing Kiwi opener and have had a very modest record on the road.
