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final as Sri Lanka clash with India |
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By
Marlon Fernandopulle
The beating of drums, blowing of trumpets and the vociferous
cheering of over thirty five thousand fans will drown the
Premadasa stadium today as the host country Sri Lanka clash
with their neighbours India in the ICC Champions Trophy final
under lights today.
The 18-day
tournament which generated tremendous interest before it kicked
off due to a sponsorship row could not have a better climax
than what has been set today. Two teams that were a cut above
the rest of the teams during the Championship and have improved
in leaps and bounds in the shorter version of the game recently
are pitted against each other in a battle that promises all
the excitement, thrills and spills of one day cricket.
 The
Sri Lankan camp was upbeat after their resounding victory
over Australia in the semi final and looked very confident
for the big one. It was a very good performance by the team
to defeat the World Champions on Friday and just what we needed
ahead of a final," said Sri Lankan skipper Sanath Jayasuriya.
When asked
how his team's chances are against India the skipper replied
saying, It's a final and it is going to be very tough. Both
teams are very strong in their batting. But I think we have
a better bowling attack than India".
 Sri
Lanka are very likely to bring back medium pacer Dilhara Fernando
at the expense of either Kumar Dharmasena or Upul Chandana.
Unlike the Australians the Indians play the slow bowlers well
and so Sri Lanka will change their strategy and their line
of attack by including a third seamer.
The Lankans
are also aware that the Indians have a strong batting line
up comprising Virender Shewag, Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar,
Yuvraj Singh, Rahul Dravid and Mohamed Kaif and will require
a well planned disciplined bowling effort to contain them.
Muttiah
Muralitharan who is just three wickets away from 300 wickets
in one dayers and is also on a hat-trick will be the Lankans
triumph card. Apart from expecting Murali to pick up some
key wickets the Lankans will look to their champion off spinner
to stem the flow of runs from the Indian batsmen.
Despite
playing away from home India will have good support from the
thousands of fans who have flown to Sri Lanka to support their
team. In addition the wicket at the Premadasa Stadium and
the hot and humid conditions would be similar to what is found
in most parts of India.
With batting
their forte Indian Captain Sourav Ganguly will pin his hopes
on his strong batting line up to get the better of the Lankans.
"We have played very good cricket in this tournament
and our batsmen have done really well". The only weak
link in the Indian team has been their bowling.
Playing
with only four specialist bowlers skipper Ganguly has to rely
on Tendulkar, Shewag, Yuvraj and himself to share ten overs.
The move has paid off for the Indians in the tournament but
it could be a worry for the Indians if one of their four front-line
bowlers are not up to the mark and become expensive early
on in his spell.The Indians have also lost left armer seamer
Ashish Nehra after the bowler split his webbing on his bowling
hand in the semi final against South Africa. They have called
up the experienced Javagal Srinath as a replacement and also
have the option of including all rounder Ajith Agarkar.
The Indian
team is on a high after defeating England and South Africa
in the quarter final and semi final respectively. But today
the Indians will be up against Sanath Jayasuriya's team who
have brushed aside two strong teams Pakistan and Australia
on their way to the final.
Thus the
stage is set for an enthralling encounter between these two
great Asian teams for the glittering ICC Champions trophy
and the US $ 300,000. With all tickets sold out a full house
is expected to witness the finale of a great tournament which
kept cricket fans round the globe at the edge of their seats
during the past 18 days.
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