What
The final match of the 2011 ICC World Cup will be played between joint hosts India and Sri Lanka. The match is a Day/Night affair.
When
April 2, 2011. The game begins at 2:30 pm, IST.
Where
Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. One cannot be absolutely certain of how the track will play in the big final as the previous two games played here have been contrasting. When New Zealand played Canada on March 13, the pitch appeared to be a flat batting track. More than 600 runs were aggregated between the two sides with New Zealand scoring a mammoth 358 in 50 overs.
The second game, played five days later on March 18, saw the Sri Lankan spinners get plenty of assistance as Muttiah Muralitharan, Ajantha Mendis and Tillakaratne Dilshan took seven wickets between them to bowl New Zealand out for 153. Besides Kumar Sangakkara’s knock of 111 which set up the Sri Lankan total of 265, there was only one other fifty plus score in the entire match (Mahela Jayawardene’s 66).
The Teams
India head into this contest as favourites. Barring MS Dhoni’s disappointing form (150 runs in seven innings), all the batsmen are in good touch. The bowling, too, with the renaissance of Ashish Nehra and Munaf Patel in the semi-final against Pakistan, looks in good form. Should Dhoni decide to drop one pacer in favour of an extra spinner depending on the nature of the Wankhede wicket, R Ashwin has enough experience to step up on the day.
Sri Lanka, conversely, do not look as formidable. Unlike India whose mettle has been severely tested against Australia and Pakistan in the previous two games, Sri Lanka have had it easier playing New Zealand and England in the knockout stages.
Also, their Top 3 batsmen - Tillakaratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga and Kumar Sangakkara – aside, the middle-order looks highly vulnerable. Thilan Samaraweera, Angelo Mathews and Chamara Silva have scored only 89, 94 and 77 runs in six, five and four innings respectively. Mahela Jayawardene, too, has just 201 runs from six innings and if one were to discount his 100 against minnows Canada, the result would be even more humbling.
Sri Lanka, however, seem better placed in their bowling department. Lasith Malinga and Muttiah Muralitharan are genuine match winners and India will do well to play both of them cautiously. Ajantha Mendis (seven wickets at an economy-rate of 3.14), Rangana Herath (three wickets at an economy-rate of 4.27) and Nuwan Kulasekara (five wickets at an economy-rate of 3.75) have also put in steady contributions.
Both teams have a few injury concerns heading into the final. Ashish Nehra fractured the middle finger on his right hand while attempting a catch in the semi-final against Pakistan. Sri Lanka is dogged by injuries to Angelo Mathews and Muttiah Muralitharan. And while the veteran Chaminda Vaas and spinner Suraj Randiv have been flown in to Mumbai for an emergency swap if necessary, it will be unrealistic to expect both replacements to step up at such short notice. Also, all-rounder Mathews’ absence from the game would upset Sri Lanka’s balance greatly.
Key players
Zaheer Khan has been India’s leading wicket-taker at the 2011 ICC World Cup. He looks a completely different bowler now from the man who represented India in the 2003 World Cup final. Not as quick as before, Zaheer has relied on experience, variety and changes in pace to snare unsuspecting batsmen in this tournament. 19 wickets at a strike-rate of 22.5 and economy rate of 4.67 in conditions which aren’t necessarily favourable for pacers speak abundantly of Zaheer’s expertise over his craft.
At 467 runs, Tillakaratne Dilshan is the leading run-getter in the World Cup. Playing a brand of cricket that is distinctly Twenty20 in style, Dilshan has looked to take the attack to the opposition bowlers on every occasion. He is equally adept at playing both pacers and spinners and his familiarity with Indian conditions and Indian bowlers through his IPL experience should serve Sri Lanka well in the final.
The History
These two sides have met on seven occasions in World Cup competitions and surprisingly, it is Sri Lanka who hold the better head-to-head record over India. They have beaten the Indians on four occasions (1979, 1996 – twice and 2007) with India having won twice (1999 and 2003) and one game offering no result because of rain (1992).
It can also be said that the Lankans have hurt India when it mattered. Of the two occasions that they beat India in the 1996 World Cup, the second match was the semi-final. Indian fans who turned up at the Eden Gardens on that day had hoped to see the home team crush the Lankans and make it to the final. Instead, Sri Lanka having posted a score of 251, reduced India to a score of 120 for eight before crowd trouble forced the game to be abandoned. The match was duly awarded to Sri Lanka.
But the memory that is fresh in the minds of the Indian players and their many fans is the defeat which forced their exit from the 2007 ICC World Cup in the group stage of the tournament. Having lost to Bangladesh earlier, India were in a must-win situation heading into their match against the Lankans. But having allowed Sri Lanka a score of 254, the Indians put up a poor batting display (185 all out) that cost them the game and a place in the next round.
Trivia
MS Dhoni has captained his team in a tied game on three occasions and has gone on to win each of those tournaments. In the 2007 ICC World Cup Twenty20, India had a tied game with Pakistan in the group stage but went on to win the tournament. Then in IPL 2010, the Chennai Super Kings, led by Dhoni, were involved in a tied game with Kings XI Punjab in the league stage and went on to win the tournament. A similar thing happened when CSK tied with the Victorian Bushrangers at Champions League Twenty20 2010 in the group phase but won the final. Although each of these games was in the T20 format, the significance of Dhoni having captained India in the tied game against England earlier in their group encounter of the 2011 ICC World Cup makes it an interesting point to ponder.
In the previous nine editions of the cricket World Cup, there has been only one instance of the host nation winning the World Cup. In the 1996 World Cup final, when Arjuna Ranatunga and his Sri Lankan teammates beat Australia by seven wickets at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore, it was the first time that a host nation (Sri Lanka were joint hosts along with India and Pakistan then) had won the World Cup. This time, too, Sri Lanka come to Mumbai as joint hosts of the 2011 ICC World Cup. And if the Lankan players pay heed to history, they might just use it to lift themselves on the big occasion.
The squads:
India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (c & wk), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Ashish Nehra, Yusuf Pathan, Piyush Chawla, S Sreesanth and R Ashwin
Sri Lanka: Kumar Sangakkara (c & wk), Upul Tharanga, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardene, Thilan Samaraweera, Chamara Silva, Angelo Mathews, Lasith Malinga, Rangana Herath, Ajantha Mendis, Muttiah Muralitharan, Dilhara Fernando, Chamara Kapugedera, Nuwan Kulasekara, Thisara Perera, Chaminda Vaas (on standby) and Suraj Randiv (on standby).
