But the Hyderabad Heroes will be keen to alter it instead of letting a bowl-out decide the championship. It will be difficult for them to overcome a Lahore side that has dominated its last five consecutive wins - the narrowest margin of victory in those games was a 13-run win against the Chennai Superstars. Everything has clicked for Lahore since beating the Chandigarh Lions by seven wickets at the start of this month. They haven't lost more than five wickets in four chases and scored a whopping 211 in the one game in which they batted first. Hyderabad also put in a couple of masterful performances - beating the Mumbai Champs by 79 runs and the Royal Bengal Tigers by nine wickets - but seemed to have lost some of their spark after just edging past Bengal in the semi-final.
There's no better time for Hyderabad's openers - Jimmy Maher and Ibrahim Khaleel - to give their side a scorching start before Saqlain Mushtaq troubles them with his variations. They haven't done so badly in the two matches they opened after Khaleel was promoted up the order - adding 49 in the first final - but in order to counter Lahore's imposing batting line-up which includes Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf and the in-form Naved-ul-Hasan, Hyderabad will need something special from their openers.
The two teams opened the tournament with a farcical match which Hyderabad won after the floodlights failed in Lahore's innings. The organisers will hope that if Saturday's game is the last one in the season, it turns out just the opposite.
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