The colourful opening ceremony done and dusted and Dravid vs Ganguly out of the way, it's the turn of Yuvraj vs Dhoni at the PCA stadium here on Saturday. It's the second game of the Indian Premier League, but the first which starts with the sun still around and only the team batting second will bat under lights. Yes, it's a true day-and-night T20 game, unlike the opener at Bangalore which was played entirely under floodlights. The game here between Team Mohali and Team Chennai has already been dubbed as Yuvraj vs Dhoni, teammates-turned-rivals for this extravaganza. But there are a whole lot of characters who will be out to hog the limelight. The biggest and most popular among them are Brett Lee of Mohali and Muttiah Muralitharan of Chennai. Lee is among the most popular Australian cricketers in India. He sings and plays guitar with finesse of a maestro. He also delivers the red cherry at over 150mph. That's what he is getting paid for. To knock off the rival batsmen, who will not relish chin music from him. Muralitharan, a Sri Lankan Tamil, will be at home when he plays for Chennai. Ironically, his captain Mahendra Dhoni and most of his colleagues in the team hardly know a word of Tamil but Murali will not be deterred by that, because his prime objective would be to stop the big guns in the opposition from firing. The biggest draw for the home crowd would undoubtedly be Yuvraj Singh. The crowds will go berserk when he comes to bat. They would be expecting nothing less that six sixes in an over. Maybe not that many, but surely a few. Especially off the bowling of Murali. Yuvraj may be a local darling, but Dhoni is the darling of the whole nation. The crowds here will go delirious if he goes hammer and tongs after the home bowlers. Two flamboyant cricketers leading the two sides in front of a huge crowd will surely set the pulse racing, not only at the venue but all over the country. As far as the selection of the final XI is concerned, Chennai coach Kepler Wessels has a clear mind about it. "I have my final XI ready but I will not reveal it till the toss. I am confident my boys will begin the campaign on a winnings note, which is very crucial in this round-robin double leg eight-team league. Of course, it is a long drawn-out affair, and the teams have lot of chances to come back. But the initial matches are crucial as the teams would like to try out various combinations and finally get them right." Coach Wessels's job has been made easy as two of the foreign recruits - Makhaya Ntini and Morne Morkle - are not available. So he has a smaller pool of foreign players to chose from. While Wessels may have his playing XI ready, Mohali coach Tom Moody was still undecided as he has a problem of plenty on hand. He and Yuvraj will have to sit down and pick four of the eight foreigner players that a team is allowed in the playing XI. Who among Lee, Simon Katich, James Hopes, Luke Pomersboch, Kyle Mills, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene will be picked in the XI. Of the lot Sarwan is yet to reach the venue, but he is supposed to make it in time for the match. So the IPL T20 is not just about slam-bang, but also getting the combination right and making the best use of the foreign players available. The Mohali wicket has always had good bounce and carry and the outfield is lush green. On such a surface one can expect scintillating strokeplay and the full house will surely get their money's worth.
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