The Champions League T20 final will be played between the Warriors and the Chennai Super Kings at the New Wanderers in Johannesburg. Warriors overcame the more fancied South Australia while Chennai won the battle of the IPL teams against Bangalore to get to the final.

Looking at the strengths and weaknesses of the two sides, there isn’t much to choose from between them. To give an indicator on how evenly matched the two sides are, both have won four games out of the five they have played in, while the one match between Chennai and Warriors was won by the Super Kings by a narrow margin.

BetFred offers 8/13 for a Super Kings win, while the Warriors are at 11/8 (Boylesports) to lift the crown. One gets the sense that the game could be a lot closer than that.

Both sides have relied on their top three batsmen to give them the momentum. The Chennai Super Kings have relied on Murali Vijay (10/3 at Boylesports) and Suresh Raina (10/3 at Boylesports) for their runs. Michael Hussey (4/1 at Ladbrokes) joined the playing eleven after the first couple of games and has already played a huge role in one of the wins. MS Dhoni (11/2 at BetFred) has had a quiet tournament because of a combination of illness and the top-order doing their job, but much like in the IPL this year, it was his crucial knock that got the side to the semi-finals.

The Warriors, on the other hand, have had their skipper Davey Jacobs (6/1 at SkyBet) leading from the front. Jacobs top-scored in the semi-finals with another knock that took an Australian side out – earlier his half-century had knocked the Bushrangers away – and he will be one to watch out for. However, there is a good chance of the law of averages catching up with him, and that can only mean that the Warriors will need the likes of Colin Ingram (9/2 at Blue Square) and Mark Boucher (6/1 at SkyBet) to contribute to the side’s chances of winning the tournament.

Ashwell Prince has had an off tournament so far, and will need to buck the trend if he needs to become a more permanent member of the Warriors T20 squad.

Tips:
Favourites: Warriors (11/8 at Boylesports)
Top Warriors batsman: Colin Ingram (9/2 at Blue Square)
Top Chennai batsman: Michael Hussey (4/1 at Ladbrokes)