Mumbai, April 2: The 2011 ICC World Cup final is about to played at Mumabi’s Wankhede Stadium. India are playing the final of the cricket World Cup after a gap of eight years while Sri Lanka were the losing finalists at the 2007 edition. India head into this contest as favourites. However, with Sri Lanka having beaten India on four of the seven occasions that the two have met in the World Cup, their confidence will be upbeat.
Speaking on the Wankhede wicket Sourav Ganguly Said, “It looks very evenly rolled with not much grass on it. There is not much moisture in the wicket. The seamers might get some movement early while the spinners will get assistance from the wicket later on. The team which wins the toss will look to bat first.”
Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara won the toss and opted to bat first. The Lankans have made three changes to their side bringing in Chamara Kapugedera, Nuwan Kulasekara and Suraj Randiv into their side. The Indians, on the other hand, have decided to play S Sreesanth in place of the injured Ashish Nehra.
Captain speak:
Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka):
On the team’s preparation: “It’s been good. We have a few new guys coming into the side so hopefully they’re fresh enough to step up to the occasion.”
MS Dhoni (India):
On losing the toss: “Since it’s a big game we would have liked to put runs up on the board. But I can’t control the toss, so we are happy to field.”
Playing XIs
Sri Lanka: Kumar Sangakkara (c & wk), Upul Tharanga, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardene, Thilan Samaraweera, Chamara Kapugedera, Thisara Perera, Nuwan Kulasekara, Lasith Malinga, Suraj Randiv, and Muttiah Muralitharan.
India:Mahendra Singh Dhoni (c & wk), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel and S Sreesanth.
