Pistons' batting may just about tilt the balance

India Pistons and Chemplast, both Madras based teams, clash tomorrow in the title showdown of the Coromandel Cement Trophy at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. The tournament began with one-day contests in the pre-quarters and quarters while the semifinals and finals are more elaborate three day affairs. Both teams have had a smooth passage, India Pistons' path being eased considerably by the defeat of MRF on the Duckworth-Lewis rule to Indian Airlines in the quarters, despite having piled up 321.

Indeed both finalists are also jointly leading the points tally in the TNCA first division league in Chennai with 22 points from five games, Chemplast contesting under the Jolly Rovers banner. In their head to head clash less than three weeks ago, Pistons had slightly the better of the exchanges, replying with 279/7 in 66 overs to Rovers' 302/9 in 112 overs in the two day encounter. Chemplast have since lost the services of Jatin Paranjpe, Santosh Saxena and Sujit Somasunder who all turned out in the TNCA league.

Pistons have a mighty batting line up headed by captain Robin Singh, hardy campaigners Vikram Rathour and Pankaj Dharmani, 25-year-old right hander Satyajit Medappa and two exciting young strokemakers in R Sathish, 19 who struck a sizzling 82 in the semifinal win over Indian Airlines, and 20-year-old left hander Hemanth Kumar, fresh from two hundreds and two fifties in the TNCA league. Wicketkeeper Reuben Paul is a cool customer himself caning a lusty half century that knocked out NCA in the pipeopener. In the bowling department, besides Robin they have Punjab seamer Gagandeep Singh, Railways leg spinner WD Balaji Rao and left arm spinner Sunil Subramaniam.

Chemplast possess two in-form batsmen in Baroda and India's Jacob Martin and 20-year-old Chennai opener S Badrinath, both of whom hit big hundreds in their semifinal thrashing of Hyderabad. Then there is Punjab left handed all rounder Dinesh Mongia and tantalising opening bat S Ganesh Kumar. Former Tamil Nadu Ranji Trophy captain D Vasu can adapt to any position in the order and is a clean striker of the ball. On paper the line-up doesn't look as imposing as Pistons though. Chemplast have two young tearaways, L Balaji from Chennai who is not yet 19, and Kerala's Tinu Yohanan, besides the left arm spin duo of Vasu and R Ramkumar, not much to choose between the two sides here.

After the final the players will have to scurry back to Madras to participate in the Buchi Babu competition in which Chemplast under the guise of Jolly Rovers is slated to play Kerala in the prequarters. Pistons will not be around though, the players have been split up among the two Tamil Nadu teams, the MAC TNCA XI and the TNCA President's XI.