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The best two bowling sides in the competition go head-to-head in the final of what has truly been a remarkable Twenty20 World Cup.

Right through the tournament, Pakistan have been the overachieving underdogs. They've had the easiest possible run through to the semi-finals, beating two associate nations - Netherlands and Irelands, and demolishing New Zealand in the one true match that mattered. However, they needed to produce the goods against South Africa in the semis, and came up trumps with a fantastic bowling performance to restrict the Proteas.

Their bowling has clicked amazingly well as a unit, with three stand-ou t performers. Umar Gul and Saeed Ajmal have picked up 12 wickets apiece in the tournament to top the bowling charts. Gul has traditionally come on to bowl in the 13th or 14th over, and has been devastating with his accurate yorkers. Conceding runs at just 6.29 per over, he has invariably either won the match for his team with the ball, or ensured that he has kept the runs down at the end of the innings. However, the surprise package of the side has to be the amazing transformation of Shahid Afridi into a world class bowler. Partnering Ajmal with unerring accuracy in the middle overs, Afridi and Ajmal often bowl 8 of 10 overs of spin (with former skipper Shoaib Malik chipping in with a couple of overs a game) right through from overs 6 to 15. Afridi has picked up 10 wickets in the tournament so far and has been the most economical of the Pakistani bowlers on display, conceding just 5.37 runs per over till date.

Allrounder Abdul Razzaq and young left arm quickie Mohammed Aamer open the bowling together, and though they average barely a wicket a game, have not been particularly expensive either. Razzaq is going under 6 an over and Aamer just above 7, ensuring that the opposition rarely run away with the game in the early overs.

The clockwork precision of the Pakistani bowling unit makes them incredibly predictable, yet amazingly no side has really been able to take advantage of the same. As a unit, the opposition in the tournament has averaged just 125 against them in 6 matches, an outstanding effort especially when you throw in Pakistan's lack of athleticism in the field.

The Pakistan batting meanwhile hasn't really fired in the tournament. Averaging just 138 as a team, no batsman has crossed 200 runs in the competition, rare for a side making an appearance in the final. What has worked for them has been the depth in batting, and the fact that everyone seems to be contributing in bits and pieces. Captain Younis Khan is the highest run getter in the side with 172, followed by Akmal who has 151 runs. Shoaib Malik and Misbah-ul-Haq are yet to light up the tournament, having scored barely 200 runs between them with 10 innings at bat. Afridi too was having a poor series with the bat till his match-winning knock of 51 against South Africa in the semi-finals. Shahzaib Hasan and Salman Butt have played 3 games each, with the former doing marginally better, averaging 19.33. Allrounder Fawad Alam has had a free ride in the tournament having batted twice for 12 and 3 not out, and bowled just 1 over - Pakistan may just want to re-evaluate whether they are not better off playing an extra bowler who could give them 2-3 overs (not that their bowling needs any help).

Sri Lanka meanwhile are a well oiled machine. In the run up to the semi-finals we considered them a side of 4 Batsmen, 3 Bowlers and 4 others. The performance of Mathews in the semi-final against the West Indies has forced us to revise that equation slightly. Their batting unit has plundered 901 runs in the tournament so far at an average of 150 per game while their bowlers have conceded 800 at an average of 133.33, just about 8 runs more than Pakistan - not bad at all for a team that used to be perennial whipping boys a few moons ago.

Dilshan has been the star of the side, and arguably the player of the tournament. With 317 runs at an average over 60, he has plundered 46 boundaries all on his own, just 23 less than the entire Pakistan team put together. The rest of the team bats around him, Jayasuriya and Jayawardene have chipped in with 160 and 153 runs respectively. Thanks to Dilshan's success at the top, Sangakkara's mediocre tournament at just 113 runs has managed to slip quietly under the radar.

However that is where the good news for Sri Lanka ends. No one else in the side has contributed anything with the bat. The remainder of their side has contributed 158 runs in 23 combined innings! Should Pakistan be able to pick up the Big 4, they could well rout the Lankans, and may wish to rethink their approach of leaving star paceman Umar Gul for the death. The flip side of course is that if the remaining four and a half bowlers can pick up the Big 4 of the Sri Lankan line-up, Gul could well be poised for another 5-6 type bowling performance like he managed against New Zealand.

Like Dilshan with the bat, mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis has been the cornerstone of the Sri Lankan bowling. He joins the top of the Pakistani bowlers at the top of the wicket-taking chart with 12 sticks, and outperforms them in the economy rate column as the only bowler in the entire tournament conceding less than 5 runs per over. (Kolkata shame on you for dropping him from your IPL side)

Fast bowler Lasith Malinga also has 12 wickets to show for his World Cup efforts, though he has been expensive, going at almost 8 per over. Muralitharan and Angelo Mathews complete the other 2Ms, and have 13 wickets between them at less than a run a ball, making the Lankan attack generally hard to score off.

The weak-links have been Udana and Jayasuriya who have combined for 24 very expensive overs in the tournament. Pakistan will definitely be aware of the same, and will look to target their overs for close to 10 an over.

The one area where the Lankans do excel over Pakistan by leaps and bounds is their fielding. Guaranteed to save 10-15 runs in the field, the Lankans tend to add that much more to their total, increasing the pressure on the opposition.

The last contest between these two sides was a little over a week ago, incidentally at Lord's itself. Sri Lanka batted first and made exactly their average score - 150 for the loss of 7 wickets. Dilshan and Jayasuriya put on 81 for the first wicket in 9 overs, with the rest of the side adding just 69 more from the 11 overs that followed. Gul was brought on earlier in that match, and went for 34 runs, his worst outing in the tournament. Pakistan conceded 20 extras, and ended up losing the match by 19 runs. Pakistan left their chase too late on the night, and despite a 37 ball 50 from Younis Khan lost too many wickets to Malinga and Murali.

With both sides preferring to bat first and close matches on the strength of their bowling, the toss becomes twice as crucial on Sunday. Our prediction is pretty simple, there isn't much that separates the two teams, whoever will win the toss and bat first is more likely to win.

Photographs Courtesy: ICC

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