Narayana Swamy

Chennai, Oct 9: A mouth-watering clash between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians is on the cards with the final of Champions Trophy T20 all set to be played at Chidambaram stadium on Sunday October 9, 8 pm onwards.

Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli both roared like lions in the last two successive matches, and spectators in Chennai are high on expectations for another big bang.

Though on paper Bangalore looks to be the favourite to win the trophy, Mumbai Indians cannot be underestimated because of their fighting ability in the death overs, and of course, Malinga's magical spells. If Kohli and Gayle fail, who will save Bangalore? This is a big question as the team is heavily dependent on these two power hitters.

Mumbai Indians captain Harbhajan Singh has received lots of praise for his bold captaincy and the way he has been using his bowlers in the end overs.

"Bhajji has shown lots of maturity, and shown potentials of becoming a good captain. He needs to lead from the front now, and take some pressure off from fast bowlers," a senior cricket expert in Chennai told this website.

"It will be great to see the Malinga Vs Galye as well as Malinga Vs Kohli contests. These three are exciting players in the T20 form, and spectators can't ask for anything more," he said.

"Bangalore is strong in batting, but less effective in bowling. On the other hand, Mumbai has a strong bowling line-up but their batting has not done wonders. This could be a perfect bat and ball contest."

Another interesting point is, Bangalore loves to chase and Mumbai loves to defend. Both have made the right decisions with the toss. So toss will play a vital role too.

Teams:

Royal Challengers Bangalore (From): Daniel Vettori(c), Sreenath Aravind, Mayank Agarwal, Abhimanyu Mithun, Arun Karthik(w), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chris Gayle, Mohammad Kaif, Virat Kohli, Dirk Nannes, Asad Pathan, Saurabh Tiwary, Syed Mohammad Jamaluddin, Raju Bhatkal, Johan van der Wath

Mumbai Indians (From): Harbhajan Singh(c), Yuzvendra Chahal, Kieron Pollard, Suryakumar Yadav, Aiden Blizzard, James Franklin, Davy Jacobs, Lasith Malinga, Ambati Rayudu(w), Tirumalsetti Suman, Abu Nechim, Andrew Symonds, Rajagopal Sathish, Dilhara Fernando, Sarul Kanwar