Sri Lanka-India clash in final

Chris Dhambarage

Asian heavyweights India and Sri Lanka will revive their rivalry when the two teams clash in the Compaq Cup Tri Series limited overs cricket tournament final under lights at the R. Premadasa Stadium today.

The Lankans have already built up a huge psychological barrier by inflicting the biggest ever defeat on their opponents here, following their crushing 139 run victory in a preliminary round match on Saturday night at the same venue.

But more importantly the Indians have another hoodoo having failed to win a title in a multi nation event on Sri Lankan soil for the past eleven years. Their previous success came in the year 1998 when they overcame Sri Lanka by six runs to clinch the Singer Akai Trophy and then shared the ICC Champions Trophy with the hosts in 2002.

Both teams will be battling for reputation with India determined to hang on to the number two position in the International Cricket Council one day rankings. In addition India and Sri Lanka will also be looking to boost their morale ahead of the Champions Trophy tournament in South Africa.

Sri Lanka will be hoping that ace spinner Muttiah Muralitharan will be fit to play along with middle order batsman Thilan Samaraweera. In fact Muralitharan had a good work out at the nets yesterday and will be determined to make his presence felt in this final. Skipper Kumar Sangakkara said that Muralitharan is fit and ready to go. “We will see how he is and will make a decision as to whether he is available for the final. The Champions Trophy is coming up in South Africa and we don’t want to rush him into anything too soon.”.

Sri Lanka’s batting looked quite solid on the previous day where promising Thilina Kandambi played a magnificent innings after veteran Sanath Jayasuriya had provided the early fire works.

In fact Sri Lanka will be more than pleased with their performance where dashing opener Sanath Jayasuriya returned to form after hitting a bad patch for quite some time. Now they are well set to maintain the same momentum and add the finishing touches for another successful tournament.

Even then both captains believe that the toss will be really important as it has been the situation with day night matches at the R. Premadasa Stadium. “The toss is important. If you win it, you have 60 per cent chance of winning the match.

Moreover, if you score 230 or 240 runs, then you have a good chance as the bowlers will find it easier to bowl second,” Dhoni told reporters yesterday.

India of course were able to overcome the jinx of winning under lights while batting second at this venue in their opening game against New Zealand.

The conditions are expected to be the same although a new strip will be used for the final.

Sri Lanka has always been a hard team to beat on their home turf. While India leads Sri Lanka 59-43 in head-to-head records, Sri Lanka has won 23 matches and lost 16 to India in the previous 42 encounters between the two sides in Sri Lanka.

The teams:

Sri Lanka (from): Kumar Sangakkara (captain), Muttiah Muralitharan, Sanath Jayasuriya, Tillekeratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardena, Upul Tharanga, Thilan Samaraweera, Chamara Kapugedera, Thilina Kandambi, Angelo Mathews, Dhammika Prasad, Ajantha Mendis, Lasith Malinga, Thilan Thushara, Nuwan Kulasekera, Malinga Bandara.

India (from): Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Dinesh Karthik, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Ashish Nehra, Rudra Prathph Singh, Ishant Sharma, Virat Kohli, Abhishek Nayar, Praveen Kumar.