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'IPL-9 has been the stories of the skippers'

The Gujarat Lions team that topped the league stage in the IPL has another chance to make it to the final when they take on the Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Ferozeshah Kotla in Delhi.

The Sunrisers came back strongly to beat the Kolkata team who had beaten them in both the league encounters and in doing so displayed that they can also win when their skipper David Warner has not made a huge contribution.

Warner has been the lynchpin of the Hyderabad batting for the past several seasons now but it is his leadership that's been terrific too. He has led from the front and his energy on the field has been infectious.

If anything, this year's IPL has been the stories of the skippers and how they have marshalled their troops. The three top skippers have their teams still left in this year's edition. It's not just their fabulous batting but the way they have handled the players under them that's been the feature of this tournament.

It's never easy to handle superstars for they always need a bit of mollycoddling to get them to play at their best. Perhaps that's where the Punjab team lost out as making young David Miller the skipper may not have gone down well with Glen Maxwell whose couldn't care less approach was visible to all those who understand cricket. When Murali Vijay was made skipper there was a change for the better as he knew the Indian players in the team and was able to get the best out of them.

Warner has been magnificent in the way he has used his part-timers, for that is often the key. With the regular bowlers it is a lot easier as they know their specific role in the team but those who know that they will get the odd over have to be brought on at the right time and Warner has been pretty much spot-on in using Deepak Hooda and Yuvraj Singh to great effect. Now that both Hooda and Yuvraj are also contributing with the bat, the burden on Warner at the top of the order has also eased though he is aware that if he bats till 15 overs Hyderabad will have a good total on the board.

Raina also has read the conditions well most of the time. Getting Aaron Finch back to the opener's slot has not quite worked and Brendon McCullum too has been in stop start mode in the tournament so far. However, it's his part-timers that are causing him the biggest headaches as they are just not able to bowl a line or length that the skipper has set fields for. Maybe he should bowl himself and pick an extra batsman in the team since picking a bowler who is leaking runs is not working anyway. It will be a close run thing again as it should be with the top sides left in the fray.

Source: PMG



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