MI vs RCB: Which way will it turn?

In five of those matches,Chennai have used three frontline spinners,and the void created by Suraj Randiv’s departure to play Test cricket in England has been filled admirably by Suresh Raina’s off spin,which ascends to a rung above part time on the helpful Chepauk track. Of the 43 wickets Chennai’s bowlers have taken at home,22 — over half — have fallen to spin.

Of the other three teams who reached the playoffs,Kolkata definitely possessed the best spinners. Over 52 per cent of Kolkata’s wickets,home or away,have gone to spinners,a bigger slice than Chennai’s 45.33 per cent.

Remarking on his team’s potential opponents in Saturday’s final,Chennai coach Stephen Fleming confessed that he was glad it won’t be Kolkata. “They were best suited,probably,because they were similar to us,in terms of their balance and the number of spinners they have,” he said. “I’m not underestimating the other two teams,but I’m glad we won’t be playing Kolkata,simply because of the conditions here.”

The two teams that will face off in the second eliminator on Friday,unlike Chennai and Kolkata,possess modest spin stocks. The spinners’ share of Mumbai’s wickets this season is 20.69 per cent,and Bangalore’s 30.88. So far,the two teams have relied on one lead spinner —Harbhajan Singh in Mumbai’s case and skipper Daniel Vettori in Bangalore’s — supported by batting all-rounders or part-timers.

Will that change at Chepauk?

Bangalore aren’t likely to include Ryan Ninan or local boy Syed Mohammad to support Vettori and Chris Gayle. “I would suggest we’ll go in with with the same team. With Chris and myself bowling eight overs,it’ll be hard to fit too many more in,” said Vettori. “The groundsman said that the wicket for this match is probably going to be a flat batting wicket,and that the one for the final might turn more.”

Mumbai coach Robin Singh echoed Vettori on the nature of the pitch. “The surface looks totally different,with Chennai playing all the other matches on a different track,” he said. “We have to look at our opposition,RCB,then the surface,and take a call on our bowling options tomorrow.”

One of those options is of deploying left arm spinner Ali Murtaza,who boasts an economy rate of 5.85 in the five matches he has played,with the new ball. Another is to bring back Ray Price,whose reputation as a crafty limited-overs exponent shouldn’t have taken too much of a beating despite an ordinary IPL debut against Kolkata.

But the Zimbabwean left-arm spinner is almost ruled out,since Lasith Malinga,Aiden Blizzard,James Franklin and Kieron Pollard will definitely fill up the foreign player quota unless one of them is injured on the eve of the match.

But the team management will definitely be tempted to leave out Dhawal Kulkarni and include Murtaza,who bowls a tight,stump-to-stump line,much like Rahul Sharma and R Ashwin,who have been pretty much the only bowlers to keep Chris Gayle quiet this season. In a match of this magnitude,against a batsman possessing Gayle’s destructive tendencies,the cricketing equivalent of man-marking might be a wise way to go.