Champions League T20 - The Final Showdown - Flair Versus Professionalism

The battle lines are drawn for the finals of the inaugural Champions League T20 - it is going to be the flair and natural attacking game of the Caribbean team versus the disciplined and strategic professionalism of the team from Down Under.

The momentum and the crowds, the bookies and even the Gods seem to be with the red brigade from Trinidad and Tobago. They have swept all before them, much in the same fashion as the hurricanes in that part of the world. And the boys do seem to be in a hurry, going from strength to strength as the tournament progressed. There is a lot of joy, both in their cricket and for those who have waited a long time to see the Windies style of cricket of the 70s.

The onus of planning for the finals seems to lie entirely on the shoulders of Simon Katich, the NSW Blues captain, as the T&T play their cricket very simply - straight from their heart. Katich's problems start right from the toss - if he wins the toss, should he bat first, relying on the form and power of Warner, while telling Hughes not to go for the singles and to play dot balls if they cannot be hit for a boundary or over the ropes? Surely, the bowling of the T&T side is their weaker link and the initiative gained from the start by attacking this chink in their armour. Or should he choose to bowl first and have Henriques complete his quota on the trot, to avoid a replay of the episode with Pollard? Should he prefer to let the opposing batsmen play a longer innings to give Dwayne Bravo and Pollard fewer balls to smash out of the park? Obviously, butter is out of the day's breakfast menu for the Aussies - you cannot take the chance of having butter-fingered fielders like the Cobras, knowing that the T&T boys prefer the aerial route, as seen from the high number of sixers they hit in their innings. Brett Lee, Stuart Clark, Moises Henriques, Doug Bollinger and Nathan Hauritz have been successful in restricting their opponents to small scores, except for the blitz from Pollard, and this might prompt Katich to favour putting the opposition win. But I feel, this is one toss Katich would not mind losing, as T&T have put up the tournaments's highest score when they batted first.

All said, one can expect a real contest on the cards. The stakes are high - David Warner and Phil Hughes may be fancying their chances of overtaking Duminy as the tournaments top scorer; Dwayne Bravo would like to prove he is the leading all rounder and Pollard would like to enhance his reputation. All this is addition to the ultimate prize - the Champion's Trophy.

My take - I would put my money on the Trinidad and Tobago team - they are on a roll, jell well as a team enjoying each other's success, enjoy their game, have adjusted to their adopted home ground with a 100% win record, much to the disbelief of the actual home team, the Deccan Chargers, and they have beaten the NSW Blues once before, so there's nothing to stop them from believing that they can do it again.