The battle of captains fantastic

Dubai: The Indian Premier League is poised for a spectacular finish today as the Kolkata Knight Riders stand in the way of a Chennai Super Kings hat-trick.

The final is also billed as a little personal battle between the rival captains Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Gautam Gambhir.

For ‘Captain Cool' Dhoni it will be just another final and a chance to prove he is still as sharp and shrewd as ever. For Kolkata skipper Gambhir, it is a golden opportunity to show his credentials as potentially the next captain of India. Twenty20 is a format that puts a captain's ability to think and act quickly to the test.

It is here that Virender Sehwag, a much more experienced campaigner than Gambhir, failed as captain of the Delhi Daredevils team. Sehwag had all the ammunition to beat Chennai but made the wrong decisions, starting with deciding to field after winning the toss and then picking the wrong team for the crucial tie.

Luck required

Twenty20, unlike One Day Internationals or Test cricket, does not give a captain the chance to rectify a mistake. It is also a format which demands luck — how else can you explain the return of the Super Kings after they were on the verge of elimination?

Luck has always followed Dhoni as much as the players he puts faith in to produce match-winning performances.

For the man who led India to triumph in both the Twenty20 and one-day World Cups, Dhoni there is less pressure. However, if he can pull off another victory — and a third IPL title for Chennai — it will be another feather in his cap and an achievement that will stand out forever.

Fans won over

Gambhir took over the Kolkata captaincy amidst huge resentment last year after their franchise ignored Sourav Ganguly, the state's greatest cricketing hero. Gambhir went on to win the heart of every Kolkata fan with his courage and team-comes-first approach. Gambhir has a higher win percentage as a captain in the IPL than Dhoni.

No wonder Kolkata breezed into the final with ease when Chennai had to struggle. It is this superior show that will give Kolkata the confidence to beat Chennai. Dhoni, whose captaincy and batting struggled in the early rounds, has transformed his team into a winning unit.

He has made his players believe that they can do it and his team have the experience of handling the pressure of a final more than any other in the competition.

On their day, both Gambhir and Dhoni can win a match through sheer batting prowess too. Whose day will it be at the M.A. Chidambaram stadium today?