THE FINAL! - Chennai Super Kings vs Delhi Daredevils

Welcome to the Wankhede Stadium, home of the Mumbai Indians.

Pitch Conditions: A hard pitch offering assistance to both genuine
quicks and the spinners. Medium pacers may struggle unless they can cramp up the batsman. It should be a great pitch especially if some of the batsman decide to take a chance.

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Please post tactics below...

Excellent pitch for the final, Gregers.

Tactics etc to go up later, probably.

Cheers fists, thought we needed the best pitch of the competition for the final!

Early thoughts: Dirk Nannes and Southee likely to be competing for seamers spots given that they're my two bowlers that push 90mph.

Ashwin/Afridi/Mendis/Ajmal I imagine 3 of those 4 will play, Ashwin a likely due to being Indian and utilising bounce well.

fists bravo and morkel could be used on here. Morkel gets a lot of bounce and its a hard pitch.

Yeah you're right, definitely worth considering.

Five overseas of Hussey, Morkel, Afridi, Nannes/Southee and Ajmal/Mendis would ive good bowling options and some massive power hitting.

I think this is a lot more even than our last game.

Considering Sehwag down the order once more to have fun against the spinners.

Morkel and Arafat definitely play.

i agree fists would be a fantastic side to be honest.

very good cricket wicket

Actually think I have a chance!!

Always a chance in a two horse race, Saint

Fists of Fury wrote:Always a chance in a two horse race, Saint

Unless Aston Villa are involved...

Very true, Mat

Unfortunately, I see it being the same way over all of this Christmas period, we have some tough games and we aren't very good!

I'll endeavour to get my team in over the next day or two guys.

fists most people wont be around in the next few days, due to obvious reasons...

so after xmas will probably be fine lol.

Yeah very true!

I love the suspense!!

lol i think the pair of ya, are waiting for the other one to put their tactics up first

It's a game of cat and mouse...

I pretty much have my side worked out, I think.

put it up then lol

Or pm them to me and I'll post them...

I'll do it tomorrow afternoon.

Working nights at the minute, so not really in the mood to now.

Totally forgot about this sorry gents, shall be up tomorrow.

Well said Kiwi!

You have a good Christmas mate?

I figured I'd give the thread a "bump"

I spent Xmas in London for the 1st time in 5 years (and the 2nd time ever), nice "Orphans' Xmas" with some Kiwi friends, plus a couple of stray Brazilian students.

How was your break?

Yeah it was good mate, busy with dissertation now tho

Birthday this week will be very much welcome relief!

tactics...

Delhi Daredevils Tactics for The IPL Final vs. Chennai Super Kings.

Squad

David Warner
Tamim Iqbal
Andrew McDonald
Wasim Jaffer
Virender Sehwag (C)
Irfan Pathan
Naman Ojha
Ganesh Gaikwad
Yasir Arafat
Morne Morkel
Varun Aaron

Toss - Bat first. Let my top 6 dominate, and rely on Morkel, McDonald and Arafat to bowl the spells of their lives.

Batting

In possibly the hardest decision I've made all tournament, James Taylor misses out on the final making way for Tamim Iqbal, freeing up Sehwag to move down the order so that Chennai's spin attack can be met head on by one of the best players of spin I've ever seen. Some of you may question why McDonald didn't drop out, but McDonald is an excellent t20 bowler and keeps his place for that reason.

Warner and Tamim to open up and take advantage of the power play overs, both are explosive openers and will relish the big occasion. hey will play responsibly to the good balls and punish the poor until they've played themselves in. Andy Mc comes in at 3 to continue in the same vein, accumulation is absolutely key against Chennai and scoreboard pressure will hamper their reply. Jaffer at 4 provides a good anchor option should things go against us. Then, the one man blitzkrieg, Sehwag enters the fray at 5, his ability against spin is common knowledge and the decision to play him here in the last game against CSK was well received so I'm going for it again. Pathan can play at 6, and Ojha, Ganesh and Arafat can swing their bats at 7,8 and 9. The hope is that we post a very competitive 180-190 and really pressurize CSK in their chase.

Bowling

Morkel - 4 overs - 1,3,18,20
Aaron - 3 overs - 2,4,16
McDonald - 4 overs - 5,7,9,11
Pathan - 3 overs - 6,8,10
Ganesh - 2 overs - 12,14
Arafat - 4 overs - 13,15,17,19

Morkel will open proceedings and look for blood (figuratively speaking) looking to blow away the CK top two and pressurise the middle order, even the best players get nervous. He'll joust for two in tandem with Aaron whom will look to utilise his wealth of pace. The two of them will bowl the first 4 overs and make way for McDonald and Pathan who will continue the ethos of probing lines and lengths and look to draw the mistakes out of a pressured Chennai order. Andy Mc will bowl his 4 overs straight through whilst Pathan will bowl 3 before making for the off spinner Ganesh. Ganesh bowls a handy off spin option and is more than good enough to joust with Chennai's star studded line up. He'll tweak for two overs and at the other end comes Yasir Arafat, ready to keep things tight with his array of yorkers, slower balls and the rest of his deceptive arsenal. Aaron will reappear for over 16 before making way for my best two seamers, Morkel and Arafat to close out the game and hopefully bowl Delhi to a shock victory.

Just a quick aside to say thanks to Gregers, and all who've contributed to this tournament. Really enjoyed doing it - even if the Final has taken forever!!

Thanks Saint, problem of the final being near christmas! Hopefully get voting done soon

Haha, hi Saint, sorry mate I've been inundated with Hall of Fame stuff on here lately so haven't had chance to sort this out. Promise something will be up this weekend.

Likewise, I'd like to extend my thanks to Gregers for organising it and keeping it running smoothly, along with everyone for taking part in the right spirit (mostly) and providing a few laughs along the way.

No worries Fists, I only put mine up last night haha!

Ha, oh right, that makes me feel a little better about it, then

dhoni is mentally jaded and unavaliable for selection :P

Chennai Super Kings:

Mike Hussey
Vijay
Dhoni
Raina
Saha
Badrinath
Afridi
Southee
Ashwin
Ajmal
Theron

Toss: Bat first - Blitz a solid total before sapping the life out of the chase.

Batting: Hussey will look to bat through as always, putting away the inevitable bad balls from the slightly wayward pair of Morkel and Aaron, whilst Vijay openly chances his arm right from the start, playing plenty of shots. Dhoni is again in at number three, the true bounce in the pitch should be perfect for allowing him to free his arms and hit through the line of the ball. Saha is brought in and will play as wicket keeper in the major change for Chennai in this game - he is renowned as an excellent gloveman and in a game of such magnitude we can't afford any missed chances, allowing Dhoni to concentrate fully on his batting and captaincy. Saha's batting record in T20's itself is very good, with a strike rate of around 135. Raina, Badrinath, Afridi and Southee will be looking to really up the run rate in the middle overs against the slower bowlers of Delhi, with the solid batting of Ashwin meaning that Chennai bat very well all the way down to 9.

Bowling: Theron and Ashwin will open up, in a surprise move to unsettle the Delhi openers, before Southee replaces Ashwin, both he and Theron utilising their pace and craft to draw the false shots from the swashbuckling Warner/Iqbal, with plenty of variation. The middle overs will see the triple A assault, Afridi, Ashwin and Ajmal will use all of their guile to keep the run rate down, with Ajmal's doosra fancying it's chances of fooling the over-zealous Sehwag. Theron, one of the finest death bowlers in world cricket, will return and bowl the final 4 overs in tandem with Ajmal, after Southee has returned in the middle overs to change things up. The aim is to give Delhi no easy runs, and I think the quality throughout that attack should stifle them enough, along with taking wickets at key intervals, in order to ensure Chennai prove victorious.

There you go, guys, apologies for the delay, but this hall of fame takes some running, amongst other things!

Now all we need to do is try and track down all of the voters, haha!