Chappell still on top
Sixty-eight points ahead with one game to go
23-May-2009
Posted at 12.05pm
Going into Sunday's final it's Ian Chappell at No. 1 leading Sambit Bal by a slender margin of 68 points.
Both Ian and Sambit went in with the same trump - Matthew Hayden, who had a rare off day, fetching just 68 points, one of his lowest hauls as trump. L Balaji (0) and Suresh Raina (22) were the other players in common. Ian had Virat Kohli and Shadab Jakati, who gave him 53, while Sambit had Muttiah Muralitharan and Anil Kumble who accounted for 45 between them, giving Ian an advantage of eight points.
For today's game Ian and Sambit have three players in common, so far - Adam Gilchrist, Rohit Sharma and Andrew Symonds. In addition, Ian has Kohli and Sambit has Kumble. And both Ian and Sambit have just one transfer left. How they use that transfer, and their choice of trump, could well decide the final result.
"It's a game of cat and mouse now, with only a transfer left," Ian had said earlier. "The competition could turn on the choice of a trump and it might take a gamble to win the prize." His words could well turn out to be true.