Jayawardene back to lead the Lankans

Elmo RODRIGOPULLE

The triumphant Indian cricketers who won the 50 over series 3-1 will wind up their tour playing Sri Lanka in a Twenty20 game under lights at the Pallekele Stadium starting at 7.p.m today.

The confident Indians will be looking to win this game too and sign off in style. They have the cricketers who can deliver and the Sri Lankans will have to play at their best if they are to stall the rampaging Indians.

The Indians arrived in Sri Lanka after being out of the game for nearly a month and a half. But they brought with them their best available men who quickly found form and got down to business and they underlined their superiority in this form of game by winning the one-day series convincingly. Again the strong Indian batting line up of Gautam Gambhir, Virende Sehwag, if he plays, Manoj Tiwary, Virat Kohli, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Irfan Pathan will get into the run making act, after which their bowlers will hope to do the demolition job.

The good news from the Lankan camp is that skipper Mahela Jayawardene is fit to play. He had to skip the final 50- over game suffering a stiff back, but has recovered to take his place in the team and inspire them with his superb leadership. The Lankans must look to win this game and lift their spirits.

They must forget their one-day defeats and win this one. A victory will fine tune them for the Sri Lank Premier League to follow and then the World Cup Twenty20.