Ajantha should play key role in final - Mahela

Chris Dhambarage from Pakistan

Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardena believed that new find spinner Ajantha Mendis could be the key player when they confront India in the ninth edition of the six nation Asia Cup limited overs tournament final under lights at the National Stadium in Karachi on Sunday.

Mendis with eleven scalps to his credit from four outings is the leading wicket taker so far in this competition and has a splendid average of 12.00. This is a tremendous achievement considering the fact that the entire tournament is marred with a series of high scores. In fact both Sri Lanka and India have piled up over three hundred runs in an innings on four occasions each and the National Stadium in Karachi has also had the most number of innings of over 300 runs - 18 out of 42 one day internationals.

But Mendis has certainly lived upto expectations as a mystery spinner ever since he broke into the international scene during Sri Lanka's tour to the West Indies in April this year. He was of course rested for the Asia Cup Super Four game against India which Sri Lanka lost by six wickets on Thursday.

The hidden fact behind this was certainly not to expose the bowling of Mendis against the Indians who are really good in playing at spin. Jayawardena said that Mendis has the capabilities of turning into a genuine match winner and it is now upto him to go out and enjoy playing in his first Cup final for the country.

Most wickets in the Asia Cup (Top 10)

Player					Mat	Wkts	Ave

Ajantha Mendis (Sri Lanka)		4	11	12.00
Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka)	4	10	15.80
Sohail Tanvir (Pakistan)		5	10	24.10
Ifthikar Anjum (Pakistan)		5	9	23.33
Abdur Razzaq (Bangladesh)		5	7	29.28
Zahid Shah (UAE)			2	6	16.33
Piyush Chawla (India)			3	6	21.33
Shahadat Hossain (Bangladesh)		5	6	32.00
Abdur Rauf (Pakistan)			2	5	21.25
Alok Kapali (Bangladesh)		5	5	33.00

Note: Tabulated under player, matches, wickets and average.