Mahendra Singh Dhoni's CSK would remain conscious of a young Shubman Gill, oozing grace, who would do everything under his control to prevent the four-time champions from beating Gujarat Titans to its fifth IPL title on Sunday. The soon-to-be 42 Dhoni will have one last assignment in his favourite Canary Yellow jersey, to stop Indian cricket’s megastar-in-waiting and do a ‘High Five’. Three hundreds and 851 runs don’t happen in every season but on a batting belter at the Motera, what will be Dhoni’s strategy to rein in the ‘Mohali Marauder’? Will it be Deepak Chahar’s swing or Ravindra Jadeja’s wicket-to-wicket bowling? Or will it be Moeen Ali, who could be the ‘Joker in the Pack’ with his enticing flighted deliveries outside the off-stump which could sharply break back.

Meanwhile, no team has emulated the structural and team building ethos of Chennai Super Kings as minutely as Gujarat Titans, another team, where cricketing decisions are based on sound logic, consistency and no interference from overbearing owners. There is a skipper in Pandya, who believes that there is only one way to lead the team. It’s called ‘The Mahi Way’. Batters win matches but bowlers win tournaments is an old saying and it couldn’t be more apt when one tracks Titans’ performance. Mohammed Shami (28 wickets), Rashid Khan (27 wickets) and Mohit Sharma (24 wickets) have executed plans more often than not and thus it has not really affected the Titans that second highest run-scorer after Gill’s 851 runs is skipper Hardik Pandya (325), who is more than 500 runs behind.