A MONTH FROM THE FINALS - THE PICTURE SO FAR

Exactly one month from today, two teams will walk out on 25th April at Dr. D.Y. Patil Sports Academy Stadium in the finals of the Indian Premier League 2010. And there is a big chance that both those teams are amongst the ones playing today.

The Royal Challengers Bangalore are currently struggling in their chase of Delhi Daredevils' 183. However, there is no doubt in most people's minds that they are one of the two strongest teams in this tounament - the other one being Mumbai Indians.

Mumbai Indians will take on Chennai Super Kings in about an hour from now, hoping to get another win and take another step towards the semi-finals.

Both these teams, RCB and MI, have certain similarities - which might well be called the keys to their success thus far in this tournament.

1. Both these teams have relied on strong solid starts consistently, with two batsmen in the top-5 runs scorers list (Kallis and Tendulkar).
2. Both have a strong opening bowling combination (Zaheer + Malinga and Praveen + Steyn).
3. Both these teams have bowlers who bowl to pick up wickets in the middle overs as well, not just for containing the batsmen (R Vinay Kumar and Dwayne Bravo).

The fact that these teams have concentrated on strengthening their bowling department (an often neglected affair in this format) is paying dividends now. Lets hope we get to see India's highest run-scorer captain his side against the side of India's highest wicket-taker - that would truly be a final of the Indian Premier League.