Its the final!!!

As the summer blockbuster comes to an end, two of its biggest superstars clash in the finale in Mumbai. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, captain of the Chennai Super Kings, is the highest-paid player in this league but his counterpart in the Rajasthan Royals, Shane Warne, has delivered better results, his success at this year's tournament would be the equivalent of the box-office returns of a Shahrukh Khan starrer.

A win for Dhoni may justify his US$1.5m price tag, but would be anti-climactic, a last-minute twist to the fairytale ending that would hand Warne the trophy. Warne's dual role as captain and coach of Rajasthan has been the story of the season: an entire team costing less than two-and-a-half times Dhoni's price, whose owner's low-budget strategy even got the thumbs down from the IPL's chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi, was moulded into a successful unit.

However, don't write off Dhoni just yet. His first stint as captain was at the World Twenty20 in South Africa, where an unfancied India claimed the title, and here his team were written off after the exodus of international stars, but Dhoni and Co have battled the odds to reach the final.

One factor in favour of Chennai is that Graeme Smith, whose batting has been the cornerstone of several Rajasthan innings, has been ruled out with a hamstring injury. Also, Rajasthan were routed by the Mumbai Indians at the DY Patil Sports Academy, the venue of the final, and Warne termed the surface "easily the worst of the IPL" as the ball stopped before coming on to the bat.

On form, Rajasthan are favourites and their confidence will be boosted by their two earlier victories against Chennai. However, after convincingly knocking out the formidable Kings XI Punjab in the semi-finals, Chennai won't be too worried about the underdog status.