Sri Lanka squandered advantage. India eager to start campaign with a win.

 

Sri Lanka controlled the game in first session of 2nd test match at Lords after winning the toss but failed to capitalise on a good start provided by their bowlers. Lankan bowlers proved Dilshan’s decision correct when they picked up 3 quick wickets upfront which included the wicket of in-form batsmen Jonathan Trott and Captain Strauss. But Cook had other ideas and he got perfect support from Ian Bell as duo helped England in reaching safe total. Matt Prior and Eoin Morgan further strengthen the position of England. Prior is still not-out and looking good to get another hundred. Bell, Cook and Morgan scored brilliant half-centuries. It was unfortunate that Cook got out on 96 and failed to get one more hundred but he certainly saved England from embarrassment.

Sri Lanka did everything right in first session but lost their way in second session  and they allowed England to claw back from the hopeless situation. Lankan bowlers however picked up six wickets at the end of first day but advantage is with England now as they are in comfortable position to dictate terms. Lankans really missed Malinga and Muralitharan and it was written all over on their day’s performance. Score was 22 when 3rd wicket fell but Lankans allowed England to get away with huge score at the end of first day. Tough times ahead for Lankans as series loss looming large over their head.

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India eager to start campaign with a win.

Indian will start their Caribbean safari today with one off T20 games. On paper both teams are equal but in betting market India is favourite to win today’s contest.

Pitches in Caribbean are much like sub-continent nowadays and this will certainly help the Harbhajan & Co.  Looking at Indian team it has some exciting talent and this talent have to perform on this tour because this tour will decide future of these young cricketers. it’s a golden chance and needs to be grabbed with both hands.

India will open with Pathiv Patel and Shikhar Dhawan,that is sure. In middle–order India have players like Kohli and Raina who are in tremendous form and they will be supported by Manoj Tiwary, Yusuf Pathan and Badrinath. All these batsmen had a great IPL and will be looking to transfer their good form in International cricket. Who ever perform well on this tour will certainly get the ticket for England which will be following Caribbean tour. It will also test the captaincy skills of Suresh Raina who will be leading this Indian team 2nd time in his career. Duncan Fletcher have big challenge ahead of him.

Looking at bowling, India have only Ishant Sharma who is genuinely quick. Likes of Munaf Patel, Vinay Kumar and Praveen Kumar are  swing bowlers. They will not get enough assistance from the slow low pitches of West Indies. According to me spinners will going to play big role on this tour as we all saw how Pakistani spinner Saeed Ajmal destoryed the West Indian batting recently.

Looking at West Indian side, they are bit below par in the absence of Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo. But they are in re-building phase and they will try out few youngsters against India. Among all the players Darren Bravo and Andre Russell looks like good talent. Apart from these two players West Indies have players like Lendl Simmons, Ravi Rampaul, Devendra Bishoo, Marlon Samuels who can turn the tides in the favour of home team.

I think it is going to be an even contest considering both teams don’t have the services of their  frontline players.

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The squads

Suresh Raina (c), Parthiv Patel (wk), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Subramaniam Badrinath, Yusuf Pathan, Virat Kohli,  Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, R Ashwin, Munaf Patel, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra and R.Vinay Kumar.

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Darren Sammy (c), Christopher Barnwell, Devendra Bishoo, Darren Bravo, Andre Fletcher (wk), Danza Hyatt, Ashley Nurse, Ravi Rampaul, Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels, Krishmar Santokie, Lendl Simmons.

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Is it going to be a Valthaty show once again? KXIP vs RR

 

Jubilant Priety Zinta owned and Gilchrist led KXIP will take on Warnie’s Royals at Mohali tonight. KXIP is full of confidence after two consecutive victories and Rajasthan is bit disappointed after 2 losses at the hands of KKR and washed out match against RCB where they shared the points with RCB.

If we look at KXIP it was not considered best team at the start of the tournament. They also started their IPL 4 campaign with a loss but after that 1st game, their turnaround is superb and credit largely goes to young rising star Paul Valthaty whose all-round performance helped KXIP to put up a brilliant show. Captain Gilchrist also got among the runs in the last match where he struck beautiful half-century and reminded spectators about his glorious past and proved that he is still great with the bat. KXIP now looks quite formidable and T20 is such a format where any team have the chance to win the game. KXIP also have reasonable bowling attack. Praveen Kumar has made a great comeback through IPL after missing the World Cup due to injuries. Ryan Harris and Piyush Chawla are also very good bowlers. So KXIP have the flavour to do well in today's game. However, form of Shaun Marsh is bit of concern who is their mainstay in batting after Gilchrist and Valthaty.

Talking about Rajasthan Royals, it is also owned by one of the Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty. Rajasthan Royals started its IPL 4 campaign by winning first two matches but after that they lost their way somewhat. They lost 2 games consecutively against reformed KKR and their last match against RCB was washed out due to rain and they shared the points with RCB. RR is still in Top 4 and their situation is not that bad. If they win today they can get the momentum. They have better team on-paper compared to KXIP. The have likes of Watson, Dravid, Ross Taylor, Johan Botha, Shaun Tait, etc. in their ranks and with Warne performing, just add the little bit more spice to the Rajasthan Royals.I think they have to change their bowling and bring in Deepak Chahar in place of Amit Singh who looked out of sorts in last 2 matches. Chahar is young and waiting for his opportunity. Considering today’s game Rajasthan Royals have little bit edge over KXIP.

It going to be cracker of the contest and it will be interesting to see Valthaty continues his good show or not.

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Team Info:

Kings XI Punjab

Dinesh Karthik(Wicket-Keeper), Abhishek Nayar, Praveen Kumar, Piyush Chawla, Bhargav Bhatt, Bipul Sharma, Love Ablish, Mandeep Singh, Nitin Saini, Paras Dogra, Paul Valthaty, Shalabh Srivastava, Siddharth Chitnis, Sunny Singh, Vikramjeet Malik, Amit Yadav, (Foreign) Adam Gilchrist (Captain/Wicket-Keeper), Shaun Marsh, David Hussey, Stuart Broad, Ryan Harris, Dimitri Masceranhas, Nathan Remington.Michael Bevan(Coach

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Team Info:

Rajasthan Royals

Rahul Dravid, Pankaj Singh, Aakash Chopra, Abhishek Raut, Aditya Dole, Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Paunikar, Ashok Menaria, Deepak Chahar, Dishant Yagnik, Faiz Fazal, Nayan Doshi, Pinal Shah, Samad Fallah, Siddharth Trivedi, Stuart Binny, Amit Singh, Dinesh Salunkhe, Swapnil Asnodkar, Sumit Narwal, Ankeet Chavan (Foreign) Shane Warne, Shane Watson, Ross Taylor, Johan Botha, Paul Collingwood, Shaun Tait.Shane Warne(Coach/Captain).

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Pune lost 2nd consecutive game. Mumbai’s good run continues.

Indeed a very good match and lasted till last ball. Yuvraj won the toss and elected to bat first but Mumbai wicket offered little bit more assistance to the bowlers this time. Mumbai bowlers took full advantage of the wicket. Harbhajan was rested from the game because of little and his replacement Abu Nechim grabbed the opportunity with both hands as he got the dismissed the inform Pune opener Jesse Ryder in his first over. He went on to pick up 2nd wicket and this early loss never allowed Pune to recover as Munaf Patel and Malinga further jolted the Pune batting. Captain Yuvraj failed miserably today as he got out on the 2nd ball he faced. Utthappa played very good innings and given some hope to Pune Warriors but he too lost his wicket at crucial juncture and ultimately Pune Warriors bowled out cheaply. Looking at the condition of wicket, it looked like Pune Warriors will stop Mumbai Indians before the target.

Mumbai opened with Franklin who replaced Jacobs in this match but he did not lasted long and soon got out. Ambati Rayadu and Sachin Tendulkar kept doing their good work and stitched the partnership but Sachin lost his wicket by playing unnecessary shot on pitch which had something in it for the bowlers. Sachin first time got out in this edition of the IPL. Ambati Rayadu soon followed Sachin and got out but till that time Mumbai reached the doorstep of victory. Rohit Sharma and Andrew Symonds won the game for Mumbai.

Man of the Match

Munaf Patel

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Kochi registered 3rd consecutive win in a near thriller

Orange colour is on high since last 3 matches. They humbled Mumbai and Chennai earlier and yesterday they stopped the winning streak of KKR at Edens. It was completely a team work which helped Kochi in registering their 3rd consecutive win and now they are in Top 4 on points table with 6 points.

Ravindra Jadeja came up with a brilliant all-round display to help the resurgent Kochi Tuskers Kerala halt Kolkata Knight Riders three-match winning run with a narrow six-run victory in a low-scoring Indian Premier League clash here on Wednesday.Jadeja was the star for the Kochi team as he scored 29 from 18 balls to help his team post 132 for seven and then scalped two wickets as the Tuskers restricted the Knight Riders to 126 for nine at the Eden gardens here. Gambhir won the toss and put Kochi into bat, Kochi had a flying start, thanks to the in-form pair of Brendon McCullum and Mahela Jayawardene but the Knight Riders restricted them to 132 for seven with a fine bowling effort by Yusuf Pathan  and Shakib-Al-Hasan. Defending the total, the Tuskers bowlers Jadeja , Rudra Pratap Singh  did a tidy job and was supported well by their bowling colleagues as Kochi halted Kolkata's three-match winning run at the Eden Gardens here.

Chasing a modest 133, Knight Riders needed to play sensible cricket but the hosts made a mess of the seemingly low score getting themselves out one by one.Three quick wickets from three overs  Jacques Kallis , Gautam Gambhir  and Manvinder Bisla  put Knight Riders in a spot of bother.Knight Riders batting mainstay Kallis became victim of a Vinay Kumar short ball, while in a space of five balls Gambhir saw his middle stump shattered by his former India teammate RP Singh Brought in place of Thisara Perera, Muralitharan returned with one wicket but he held the Knight Riders batsmen together giving away 18 runs from his four overs quota. Just when the duo of Tiwary and Morgan were looking to set the platform, a fine fielding effort by skipper Mahela Jayawardene ran Morgan out to break their 36-run partnership from 38 balls.However, undeterred Tiwary hit two fluent boundaries off RP but only to see Shakib getting bowled at the other end in the same over.Pathan, who hurt his knee while taking the catch of Jadeja, came in with a runner and the big-hitter showed his intention with a big six of Powar before being dismissed in the next ball, in what seemed to be a decisive blow for the Knight Riders.Tiwary, who looked at ease all this while, was then outfoxed by a smart wide ball by Jadeja and was stumped.

With Tiwary gone and Knight Riders at 101/7, it was just a formality for the Tuskers to complete the victory.

Man of the Match

Ravindra Jadeja

 

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Knight Riders discharged Deccan. Preview: RR vs DD and RCB vs MI

Finally, Gambhir came up the order and Kolkata Knight Riders opened their account of victory in IPL 4. Chasing KKRs par total on a pitch which had something in it for spinners, Deccan lost 3 quick wickets at the start of the innings. Shikhar Dhawan, Ishank Jaggi and skipper Kumar Sangakkara got out early leaving Deccan in all sorts of trouble. Chipli and Dan Christian gave some fight back after top-order collapse but in the end Deccan found 9 runs short of the target and lost the match. Second consecutive defeat for Sanga and his boys. Most importantly Sangakkara who were in tremendous form at World Cup looked completely out of sorts in IPL 4.

KKR started their innings brilliantly as Bisla and Kallis given them solid and steady start at the top and Kingiht RIder batsmen capitalise on that start and put up good total for the Deccan to chase. Monoj Tiwary and Yusuf Pathan played superb cameos for KKR which helped them in reaching good score. Gambhir once again failed with the bat but he came up the order this time and that was heartening for Shahrukh Khan and KKR. Deccan bowling looked ordinary except Amit Mishra who bowled superb spell for Deccan. Steyn was good in 1st spell but lost his way in 2nd spell. Ishant Sharma was disappointing from the Deccan’s perspective.

So KKR moved on and Deccan have to wait for sometime for the win. KKR started as favourite in this game and they lived upto the expectations of the fans at Edens. Crowd response was  mild from Kolkata as most of the fans refrain themselves from KKR match because ‘DADA’ was missing from KKR line-up.

Man of the Match

Two games coming up today and both are going to be terrific games.

 

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Warnie’s Royals face Sehwag’s Daredevils.

In the first game today, Rajasthan Royals will take on Delhi Daredevils at Jaipur. Rajasthan Royals looks confident side after win in their opening game. On the other hand Daredevils will be keen to open their victory account in IPL 4. On paper RR and DD don’t have much difference. But confidence factor and shrewd tactics of captain Warnie gives the edge to RR. Moreover, they are playing at home and will have definite advantage of home crowd support and conditions. The likes of Ross Taylor, Rahul Dravid and Botha who was star in RR victory against Deccan will play important role in today’s game as well. RR bowling  also looks good even though it don’t have any big name except Shane Warne.

Daredevils batting is lacklustre and there is no doubt about it. The way they struggled against Mumbai Indians, seriously put question-mark on DDs batting. Except Sehwag and Warner they don’t have anybody on whom team can rely. If Warner and Sehwag will get out early then DD will surely fail in this match as well. Aaron Finch is good batsmen but it will be difficult for him to play on slow and low pitches of India. Daredevils have relative good bowling line-up as they have Morne Morkel and Irfan Pathan in their ranks.

Rajasthan Royals will certainly have upper hand in this match and Shewag have to pull out the win at any cost just to get the momentum.

Team Info:

Delhi Daredevils

Virender Sehwag (Captain), Irfan Pathan, Naman Ojha(Wicket-Keeper), Ajit Agarkar, Ashok Dinda, Umesh Yadav, Venugopal Rao, Aavishkar Salvi, Prashant Naik, Rajesh Pawar, Robin Bist, S Sriram, Tejashwi Yadav, Unmukt Chand, Varun Aaron, Vikash Mishra, Vivek Yadav, Yogesh Nagar, Shahbaz Nadeem (Foreign) David Warner, James Hopes, Morne Morkel, Aaron Finch, Mathew Wade, Roloef van der Merwe, Andrew McDonald, Travis Birt, Collin Ingram, Robert Frylinck.. Greg Shipperd(Coach)

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Team Info:

Rajasthan Royals

Rahul Dravid, Pankaj Singh, Aakash Chopra, Abhishek Raut, Aditya Dole, Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Paunikar, Ashok Menaria, Deepak Chahar, Dishant Yagnik, Faiz Fazal, Nayan Doshi, Pinal Shah, Samad Fallah, Siddharth Trivedi, Stuart Binny, Amit Singh, Dinesh Salunkhe, Swapnil Asnodkar, Sumit Narwal, Ankeet Chavan (Foreign) Shane Warne, Shane Watson, Ross Taylor, Johan Botha, Paul Collingwood, Shaun Tait.Shane Warne(Coach/Captain).

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MI will face RCB Challenge

Confident Mumbai Indians will take on jubilant Royal Challenger Bangalore at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. Both the teams coming in this match with a win under their belt. Both teams also look par as far as resources are concerned but MI  have little edge in their bowling with Malinga firing from the top. The runners-up of the third edition of the IPL retaining most of its previous players in the squad, the team management is keen to rotate the players in the initial games to asses their depth in both the departments - batting and bowling.

Sachin’s from is another good aspect of Mumbai Indians. Andrew SYmonds missed out in last match against DDs on the account of injury, so it will be interesting to see that MI will feature him in this match or not.On the other hand RCB will bank on in-form batsmen AB DeVilliers and Virat Kohli. Both are in good touch. Zaheer Khan provides great strength to RCB bowling and he will spearhead the RCB bowling attack against his ex-team.

It will going to be battle of nerves more than anything else as both teams are equal on paper and nobody starts as favourites in this game.

Team Info:

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Daniel Vettori (Captain), Virat Kohli, Tillakaratne Dilshan, AB De Villiers (wicket-keeper), Zaheer Khan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Dirk Nannes, Saurabh Tiwary, Mohammad Kaif, Abhimanyu Mithun, Charl Langeveldt, Luke Pomersbach, Rilee Rossouw, Johan van der Wath, Jonathan Vandiar, CM Gautam (Wicket-Keeper), S Arvind, Mayank Agarwal, Arun Karthick, Asad Khan Pathan, Abrar Kazi, Ryan Ninan, Bhareth Narayanan, Nuwan Pradeep.Ray Jennings(Coach)

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Team Info:

Mumbai Indians

Sachin Tendulkar (c), Harbhajan Singh, Rohit Sharma, Munaf Patel, Abu Nechim Ahmed, Aditya Tare, Ali Murtuza, Ambati Rayudu, Dhawal Kulkarni, Pawan Suyal, Rajagopal Sathish, Surul Kanwar, Surya Kumar Yadav, T Suman, Yazvendra Singh Chahal, (Foreign) Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Andrew Symonds, Davy Jacobs, James Franklin, Moises Henriques, Alden Blizzard, Dilhara Fernando

Cricketainment Review: IPL Weekend Games

Warriors tame Kings. Brilliant debut by Sahara Pune Warriors.

Sahara Pune Warriors made explosive debut in IPL with a win under their belt over Kings XI Punjab. It was clinical performance from Sahara Pune Warriors that helped them in this victory. Gilchrist failed to make an impression with the bat and most of his batsmen surrendered to the Warriors bowling. Shreekant Wagh  bowled exceptionally well on a pitch which had some bounce on it and picked up 3 crucial wickets for Pune.

Ryan McLaren fought hard for Kings XI by playing brilliant knock of 51 and help them in reaching competitive total. After getting out cheaply Kings XI started brilliantly in the fielding as they picked up opener Greame Smith on the first ball of the innings but Jesse Ryder and Mithun Manhas knitted superb partnership and took Warriors near to the victory. In the end Utthappa and skipper Yuvraj finished the game for Warriors by winning it in 14th over itself.

It was comprehensive victory for the costliest side in the tournament. Sahara Pune Warrior has announced their arrival on IPL scene with this thumping victory over Kings XI Punjab. Adam Gilchrist have to inspire his team to do well in coming matches otherwise its going to be a very tough journey for Kings XI Punjab in this edition of IPL.

Man of the Match: Shreekant Wagh

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Master vs Disciple: Mumbai Indians crushed Delhi Daredevils.

It was master’s day and he emerged as champion. Disciple failed to live upto the expectation and lost the game. It was Sachin vs Sehwag, a dream contest and in the end Sachin won it for Mumbai Indians. But the game belonged to Slinga Malinga whose brilliant spell proved too deadly for Sehwag’s Daredevil’s and rest of the damage done by poor running between the wickets.

Delhi won the toss on a slow–sluggish pitch and got the advantage to bat in best of the conditions but Malinga soon turned this advantage into disaster as he bowled dream spell to restrict Delhi Daredevils under 100 runs. He ended up with 3rd best figures in IPL and he bowled flurry of Yorkers to Delhi batsmen. It was Maling’a brilliance which forced dasher like Sehwag to play maiden in T20 game. Such was Malinga’s impact. I think it was Malinga who set the stage for Mumbai Indians to win this game.

Once Sehwag and Warner got out they fall like nine-pins which left big question-mark on Daredevil’s team for rest of the tournament. It was impressive return for the Irfan Pathan who played any after 1 year. His swing is back and looked good in his spell.

Man of the Match: Lasith Malinga

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Poor debut for Kochi as RCB beat them in close contest.

Brilliance of AB DeVilliers denied Kochi Tuskers Kerala to open their account with a win on their IPL debut. Till 18th over match was perfectly balanced and there was every possibility of close finish but AB DeVilliers had other Ideas as he hit 3 sixes in a over that helped RCB to win the game easily against Kochi Tuskers.

Kochi started their innings brilliantly on pitch which was full of runs. McCullum and Laxman gave brilliant start but Kochi lost the momentum in the batting in middle overs. When Kochi started their batting,  it looked like they were going to put up score in excess of 180 but RCB pulled it back and restricted them to 160 odd which looked par total on a pitch which was belter.

 Kochi fought well till 18th over and game was hanging in balance but AB DeVillier’s clean and lusty hitting was the difference between 2 teams. Kochi was unlucky to end on losing side after playing well till that 18th over. It was heartening to see Laxman’s batting and the way he batted it clearly suggest that he has the class to perform in any format of the game and it is wrong to label him as only test player.

Great debut for Daniel Vettori as RCB skipper and unlucky debut for Mahela Jayawardene as a skipper of Kochi team.

Man of the Match: AB DeVilliers

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Magical Warnie helped RR to beat DC.

There is a saying “Champions are forever Champions’ and Rajasthan Royals captain proved it right. Magical Warnie bowled like a champion, captained like a champion and achieved the comprehensive win over Deccan Chargers on Saturday. Rajasthan bowling came good on the day as they dismissed Deccan for paltry total and then chased down the total quite easily. Siddharth Trivedi once again bowled brilliant spell for Rajasthan and he was brilliantly supported by Amit Singh and Shane Warne who also picked up two wickets. It was quite unbelievable how Warnie bowled in that game. Right from the first ball of his spell, Warnie was spot-on. Remember Warne is not playing cricket entire year and yet he bowls like, he bowled in his prime.

Warnie once again pulled rabbit out of the hat and that trick worked again for him. When he sent Botha at No.3 and Botha won the game for Rajasthan with the bat as he scored brilliant half-century for Rajasthan Royals.

On the other hand Deccan remain unsuccessful in stopping Rajasthan from chasing that paltry total. The only bowler from Deccan, who looked like picking up wickets was Dale Steyn who was their most successful bowler. Captain Sangakkara’s failure with the bat also proved costly to Deccan because he is their best batsmen. It was one-sided contest where overall teamwork of Rajasthan helped them in winning this match. It will be interesting to see whether Rajasthan repeats its performance of first season or not in this edition of IPL. So far everything is fine and for Deccan tough time ahead because they don’t have potent batting line-up and form of left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha is also big concern for Deccan.

Man of the Match: Siddharth Trivedi

Its time to grab the World Cup. Preview: India vs Sri Lanka (World Cup Final)

Lankan lions and Indian tigers will take on each other in the big finale of ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Both these teams reached the finals of the World Cup for the 3rd time. India won the title in 1983 by beating West Indies and reached the finals in 2003 but lost to Australia. Sri Lanka became champion in 1996 by beating Australia and reached the finals in 2007 where they also lost to Australia.

First time in the history of Cricket World Cup, two Asian teams reached the finals. Apart from reaching the finals, India and Sri Lanka also hosted this mega-event and it is also first time in the history when host and co-host will play each other in the finals. This is going to be a great finale. Asian team reaching the finals of World Cup also shows that how much Asia dominates the World Cricket.

Talking about teams lets have a look at the journey of these teams in this edition of the World Cup.

India: India defeated Bangladesh, Netherlands, Ireland and West Indies. India tied with England and lost to South Africa in league stage and finished 2nd in its group. India defeated Australia in quarter-finals and arch-rival Pakistan in semi-finals.

Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka defeated Canada, Kenya, Zimbabwe and New Zealand. The lost to Pakistan and match against Australia washed out mid-way due to rain. Hence they ended up 2nd in their group in league stage. They defeated England in quarter-finals and New Zealand in semi-finals.

 

So tomorrow’s final is going to be a thriller looking at strengths of both the teams. Cricket pundits consider Sri Lanka as favourites in tomorrow’s match but Indian team is also upbeat after their victories over two strongest teams in quarter-final and semi-final. Sri Lanka did not face much trouble in quarters and semis and earned relatively easy victories while India won after grueling battle. India also played better teams in quarters and semis compare to Lankans. So, they passed through litmus test already and ready for any kind of situation while Lankans have to prepare themselves for the big occasion. Strength of both the team is their batting and both teams heavily rely on their top 4 batsmen for runs.

Indian batting has done well in the tournament and so is Sri Lanka. 6 batsmen are in top 10 from these two teams with Tendulkar leading the pack of batsmen in terms of runs. If we talk about Indian batting all their batsmen except captain Dhoni are among the runs and batting looks good. Tendulkar and Sehwag have provided very good starts to Team India in most of the matches and they played pivotal role in the success of Team India. Yuvraj is the star of the tournament for India because of his all-round display with bat and ball. He has already bagged four ‘Man of the Match’ award in the tournament so far, more than any other player and he is key for India’s success in the finals. Indian bowling looked vulnerable in this tournament but since quarter-finals, bowling came good and bowlers performed superbly for India. Indian fielding also improved tremendously since quarter-finals and every player is putting his heart and soul in saving runs and grabbing catches. India has all the ingredients to become ‘World Champion’ looking at their performance in the tournament. India also remember their defeat against Sri Lanka in semi-finals of 1996 World Cup and they will definitely try to take revenge of that loss. So Indian team is ready and raring to go. It’s a golden chance for Team India to win the title this time round. They will be playing in their home conditions and World Cup Trophy will be perfect farewell gift for legendary Tendulkar. Remember Tendulkar was ball boy in 1987 World Cup final and 24 years later he is playing in the team like a champion and winning World Cup will be a greatest tribute to this genius.

Lankan openers Dilshan and Tharanga are the most successful opening pair in this World Cup they are topping the charts in terms of first wicket partnership. Lankans also have great strength in their middle-order as Sangakkara, Jayawardene, Samarweera and Chamara Silva are capable enough to score big runs. One can easily estimate the strength of Lankan top-order from the fact that their lower middle-order did not batted in most of the matches of the tournament. Lankan bowling has come good on most occasions and they never looked vulnerable in any match except against Pakistan where Malinga did not play. After the return of Malinga their bowling looks great and ‘M’ factor haunted opposition badly in this tournament. Malinga, Muralitharan, Mendis and Mathews has given great look to their bowling line-up. Like Tendulkar, Muralitharan is also playing his last World Cup and Lankan team definitely wants to win the trophy for the sake of legend Murali. This is last time, when we see two fiercely competitive players playing against each other and it will going to be a treat to watch both Tendulkar and Murali playing against each other in International cricket. Both are on top of their game at the moment and this one battle will provide lot of excitement for sure.

Injury to its key players is a big worry for both the teams. Sri Lanka is far more affected because of the injuries than India because their star bowler Murali and all-rounder Mathews are injured and doubtful for the match. Lankans already called up Vaas and Randiv as their back-up. As far as Murali is concern, he is very competitive and he will surely play even if he will be 50% fit as this is going to be his last International game and he will definitely wants to leave the cricket on high note. Indians have little less problem compare to Lanka as Nehra is injured and he featured in few matches in this tournament and his absence will not going to affect much because India have enough replacement. Sreesanth and Ashwin can easily replace Nehra, so injury is not going to be a big worry for India.

Great game in offering tomorrow, as both the teams are equal in terms of resources and whichever team will play better cricket will win the contest and trophy as well.