A contest between two contrasting teams

Two contrasting cricket teams head into the final of the premier cricket tournament in the land. Cricket, they say, reveals character and that axiom holds true once again in this match-up. For the contrasts between these teams run deep, in the culture and tradition of their cricket, as well as their cities.

Harsha Bhogle is a favourite son of his native Hyderabad - and yet uniquely qualified to comment on this phenomenon being, as he is, a current resident of Bombay. He once described his fellow native city-dweller as a "left lane man, driving his scooter contentedly...unable to understand the fulfillment that the Bombay man gets in scrambling aboard the 6:18 fast from Churchgate...or that obsessive all-encompassing urge to get 99.3 per cent in the optionals in the 12th standard...he'd much rather let a crowded bus go by and continue talking about Madhuri Dixit in Tezaab...or walk across to the Irani restaurant and chat over a bun-muska and one-by-two chai".

While that description might be exaggerated, and neccessarily belongs in the past with the appearance of Chandrababu Naidu and the emergence of Hyderabad as the Cybercity, it might still explain some of Hyderabad's past cricketing history. For, with a flood of very talented players and a strong team almost from the inception of the tournament, Hyderabad has only two titles to show for their efforts. Somewhere, somehow, there has been a slip between the cup and the lip - and it has had something to do with the lack of that little extra slice of discipline in their cricket.

Bombay, by contrast, has rarely had the same problem of producing disciplined cricketers in their history - a fact borne out by their 33 previous title triumphs. Over the seasons, Bombay has offered the national side a succession of batsmen built in a similar mould - so much so that their appearance has forced the coinage of the term "The Bombay School of Batsmanship". The model has usually consisted of defensive technique, immense concentration, a hatred for giving away one's wicket, and a burning desire to bat till the cows come home. The calling cards have been grit and concentration, much more than watchability.

Hyderabad might have offered far fewer batsmen to the Indian middle order, but for long there has been a certain panache about the cricketers it has produced - a certain elegance in their play compared to Bombay's stodgy solidity. In ML Jaisimha, Abid Ali, Azharuddin and VVS Laxman there has been a Hyderabadi tradition of attractive batsmen at the highest level, their wristy elegance offering a counterpoint to the dogged straightness of Bombay. Even at the domestic level, batsmen as varied as Abdul Azeem, Saad Bin Jung, Vivek Jaisimha and MV Sridhar have been known for the artistry of their play, as well as by the several runs they have put on the scoreboard.

The extremes of the tradition have, of course, softened with the new generation - Laxman can often be as dogged as anyone in the national side (though his best performances have still come when he has let the natural exuberance of his batting come to the fore). And this change has been even more apparent in the Bombay batsmen of the current generation - no one would consider Tendulkar or Kambli particularly dogged in style, after all!

But the essential character remains. With Azhar and Laxman in the middle order for the Ranji final (accompanied by the talented Vanka Pratap), Hyderabad will once again offer a batting line-up capable of incandescent strokeplay. A fact Karnataka found out the hard way, as Hyderabad ran up 711 for 8!

And they will once again be matched by a Bombay side that will call upon its traditional strength of batting solidity to rescue it from difficulty and to set up its bowlers - just as Bombay sides have for time immemorial. This year, that batting solidity has seemed to waver more than once - perhaps a natural outcome of increased flair.

The other contrasting tradition of the two sides seems on firmer footing, though - the Bombay tradition of an attack led by persevering seamers, as opposed to a Hyderabad attack led by the wily off-spinner. From Dattu Phadkar to Ramakant Desai, to Abdul Ismail and Karsan Ghavri, to Raju Kulkarni and Salil Ankola, the medium pacer has often been the spearhead of the Bombay attack. The tradition continues to flourish in the team that will take the field for Bombay in the final - for the team is likely to go in with a four-pronged pace attack of Agarkar, Kuruvilla, Mhambrey and Santosh Saxena, the first three being internationals, current or former. They will be backed up by a lone left-arm spinner - and if that is Nilesh Kulkarni, he will be following in a long tradition of Bombay left-arm spinners picked to play a stock-bowler role, stretching from Bapu Nadkarni to Ravi Shastri.

The Hyderabad tradition, on the other hand, goes back to the first great off-spinner in the nation's history, the willowy magician Ghulam Ahmed. His spiritual succesors were the 1980's duo of Shivlal Yadav and Arshad Ayub, both of whom served the country with distinction. And their tradition is carried on in the current side, remarkably enough, by a compatriot who made his first-class debut nigh on 20 years ago and played his first decade of cricket by their side - Kanwaljeet Singh. The 42-year old Kanwaljeet has long been one of the "nearly men" of Indian cricket, desperately unlucky to have failed to win a national cap. The top wicket-taker in the Ranji Trophy the past two seasons and probably the premier off-spinner in the nation for the past half-decade, Kanwaljeet has somehow failed to obtain the selectorial nod of approval.

Kanwaljeet will be supported in this game by Venkatpathy Raju, a former international and now a formidable figure on the domestic circuit. In tandem they form the premier spin-duo in the country, and on them will rest the majority of Hyderabad's hopes. The pacemen, veteran NP Singh, first-year success story Fiaz Ahmed and allrounder Parth Satwalkar will provide adequate backup. But once again, Hyderabad will lay a heavy responsibility on the shoulders of their veteran spinners to lead the way to glory.

Both sides have shown tremendous resilence all season - Bombay's battling victory over Tamil Nadu in the semi-final being a case in point. With five consecutive outright wins, Bombay will go into the final with a great deal of confidence, bolstered by the knowledge that they have home-field advantage and have been installed as favourites by the experts.

In Hyderabad, however, they come up against a veteran side that has been confounding the experts all year long. Twice this season they have trailed on first innings and were a day from elimination from the tournament - once in the final game of the Superleagues to Baroda, and once in the quarter-final to Uttar Pradesh. Both times, however, they came roaring back on the fourth innings, their spinners inspiring outright victories. With their subsequent demolition of Karnataka in Bangalore in the semi-final, they have a certain "Team of Destiny" look about them -an impression further bolstered by the fact that they are led by India's most successful captain Mohammed Azharuddin, the veritable "Child of Destiny" himself!

A fascinating battle in prospect, between two deserving finalists.