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What happens when the Final of the most hyped tournament in the world, second possibly only to the Football World Cup, is slated between two co-hosts and former World Cup champions, at a city which has produced a couple of the most venerated and celebrated cricketers of the century? You get unadulterated cacophony, a match that will go down in history books whichever way it pans out, and a champion that is, finally, not Australia!

(Click here for the Match Report)

If, prior to the two months of spicy, undulating excitement, which the tournament ended up producing, an Indian supporter had been told that the grand finale would be between India and Sri Lanka, he might have groaned greedily for a couple of seconds about how much sassier an India-Pakistan finale would be, but then, as soon as perspective took over, would begin looking for the nearest ticket-booking counter! The script-writers of this grand tourney have really earned their pay, manufacturing these two most-vaunted clashes adjacent to each other. Indo-Pak frenzy catered to, the road now culminates in an India v. Sri Lanka throw-down at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium on Saturday.

The Wankhede may have decked itself up for the World Cup Final, but it has stripped its pitch grassless. A blushing strip, more akin to Martian soil than earthly clay, has been laid by the curator, who insists it will produce runs in the bountiful as well as be a slow turner. That sounds a lot like what the 2^nd Semi-Final coughed up, and although Sri Lanka played last on this track during their final group match against New Zealand, India will be confident of applying, to success, the formulae they will have picked up from their last match. Since it had been a grassy mover of a wicket on which the Lankans had meted out the 112-run spanking to the Kiwis, they will need to study the newly-laid pitch from scratch.

Sri Lanka:

The Sri Lanka spaceship has been piloted this tournament by Admiral Tillakaratne Dilshan. Channeling the spirit of Sanath Jayasuriya of the 1996 World Cup, Dilshan has been omnipotent and omnipresent, picking up wickets with the new ball, fielding in every game as though defending the last run of the tournament, and scoring like a man possessed. With 467 runs – which include 2 centuries, a couple of forties and a fifty – 7 wickets, and a couple of Man of the Match awards thrown in for good measure, Dilshan could not possibly have chosen a better time to hit the zenith of his career. He is now quite a different package to what he had been at the last World Cup. He turns especially rabid the cruncher the game, as depict his 2 hundreds, average of 45 and strike rate of 96 in the 15 finals he has featured in. And has he featured in them good! The 2011 World Cup Final could well boil down to Dilshan vs. simpering opponent, if the Indians are not careful.

Then there is Upul Tharanga, his partner in sheer hate crime. The Dilshan-Tharanga 783-run partnership this tournament will stand as an intimidating edifice in front of India’s new ball pair. Sri Lanka’s Bonnie and Clyde, the two are a match made in Cricket Heaven, and complement each other’s tendencies to the T. Neither has scored any of their centuries, in this tournament, without the other for company. They have failed in tandem too, and will stick together, for better or for worse.

Then will arrive a smoothly devastating pair of veterans in Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, who have amassed 563 runs so far. The pair have scored 3 centuries and 29 fifties against India, and have the knack of constructing implacable partnerships. India will not be allowed to settle so long as they remain in the middle. The soft underbelly of the Lankan juggernaut comes in the form of Chamara Silva and Thillan Samaraweera, who till the semi-finals had not featured in any matches other than the one in which they failed to take the team over the line against Pakistan. They were needed in the semi against New Zealand after a rare Sri Lankan collapse, and they delivered. Despite that, they remain the weakest link in the Sri Lankan armoury, and should India hit this section of the Lankan thorax, they will perk up and bowl and field with renewed vigour.

The quad muscle strain that Angelo Mathews picked up in the semi-final is likely to rule him out of this clinching fixture. In Mathews, Sri Lanka lose their fire-power in the lower-middle order, as well as a second seamer. Thisara Perera, an equally if not more ferocious hitter, may be the automatic choice to replace Mathews. Perera also has experienced skittling an Indian line-up, as would attest the memorable, match-winning five-for he had got in against India in August 2010 in Dambulla. The slowness or spin-friendliness of the wicket will not pertain to Lasith Malinga, who varies his pace in the air, and plays Dodge-Ball with batsmen’s feet for his returns. Despite his hamstring injury, only a brave man can make Muttiah Muralitharan miss a World Cup final. The Master spinner will be tweaking his wrists in front of an international crowd for the final time on Saturday. Will he find the debilitating angle that did the Indians in the last time the two teams met in a World Cup settting?

India:

India have had an odd sort of World Cup. Their touted traits have had a repressed couple of months while their weaker, less celebrated links have taken up the mantle. What had been spoken of as the best batting line-up on paper failed over and again, each batting collapse ripping agonisingly into that very paper. Ironically, the team has managed to scrap its way into the final frontier not through incinerating batting, but through sheer heart, better fielding than it is credited with being capable of, vital contributions from Zaheer Khan and colleagues, and the exploits of one revitalised Punjabi all-rounder by the name of Yuvraj Singh. Virat Kohli’s space at no. 4 has not been exploited by him to the degree which his form had promised. His adhesive presence will be needed to anchor the middle overs on the slow wicket.

On Wednesday, India fell victim, once more, to the viscous lag in the middle overs, a repetitive pattern in the structure of their innings throughout this tournament.  Runs were reduced to a trickle from overs 30 to 40, when MS Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar were at the crease, scoring at 3.50 an over. Sri Lanka has spinners who are as devastating, if not more so, than the Pakistanis, and on the slow wicket that will be played upon on Saturday, India cannot afford to fall into their patterned trappings. Dhoni has had a pallid season with the bat, but he can take some solace in the fact that he has an average of 58 against the Lankans. The Indians have wrestled their way to each of their victories and have Sachin Tendulkar to bat for them on his home turf.

Ashish Nehra’s finger injury seeming mangy enough to rule him out of the match simplifies selection matters a great deal. With Nehra out of contention, S Sreesanth and Ravichandran Ashwin stake the claim for the spot. While both offer new ball skills, a certain fieriness in aspect, and the knack to pick up wickets, Ashwin will be confident of being Dhoni’s pick for the foil he can provide Harbhajan Singh as well as his ability to play the quasi-seamer role with the new ball. The Siamese duo of Dilshan and Tharanga will be the targeted priority for the Indian new-ball pair. The Sri Lankan opening pair has played as one; seldom has the one lasted long once the other has departed, and India will believe that getting the first wicket early will be more crucial than on the usual day. Harbhahajan Singh, with 60 wickets at an average of 26, has had the bulk of his wickets against the Sri Lankans, despite their comfort levels against spin. In his last outing, he found emphatic penetration switching to an around the wicket line to the right-hander that would enhance the effect of his doosra and suffice to cramp the batsman with incoming off-breaks. He may be used early on if Dilshan looks to unleash himself.

With India likely to go in with 2 spinners and 2 seamers on this purportedly slow track, Zaheer Khan and Munaf Patel will be used sparingly, as second fiddle to Harbhajan and Ashwin. Unless dew plays a big part, the pacers could get the bulk of their overs only as fillers or once the ball starts to reverse. With Nehra’s old ball skills not available, Zaheer Khan will do well to improve on his average of 30 against the Lankans.

Form guide:

Sri Lanka: WWWWn/rWLW

Mar 29, 2011 - Defeated New Zealand by 5 wickets
Mar 26, 2011 - Defeated England by 10 wickets
Mar 18, 2011 - Defeated new Zealand by 112 runs
Mar 10, 2011 - Defeated Zimbabwe by 139 runs
Mar 05, 2011 - No result with Australia
Mar 01, 2011 - Defeated Kenya by 9 wickets
Feb 26, 2011 - Lost to Pakistan by 11 runs
Feb 20, 2011 - Defeated Canada by 210 runs

Visibly, Sri Lanka has mostly ravaged their opposition throughout. They have won their matches by margins in excess of 100 runs and several wickets in hand, without the middle order having fired even once.

India: WWWLWWn/rW

Mar 30, 2011 - Defeated Pakistan by 29 runs
Mar 24, 2011 - Defeated Australia by 5 wickets
Mar 20, 2011 - Defeated West Indies by 80 runs
Mar 12, 2011 - Lost to South Africa by 3 wickets
Mar 09, 2011 - Defeated Netherlands by 5 wickets
Mar 06, 2011 - Defeated Ireland by 5 wickets
Feb 27, 2011 - Tied with England
Feb 19, 2011 - Defeated Bangladesh by 87 runs

India have scrapped, fought, clawed their way to the surface, stayed positive after plummeting to below-par scores, and have grown a stomach for the fight. What did not kill them made them stronger.

Likely teams:

Sri Lanka: Tillakaratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Chamara Silva, Thillan Samaraweera, Thisara Perera, Lasith Malinga, Rangana Herath, Muttiah Muralitharan, Ajantha Mendis.

India: Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Ravichandran Ashwin, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel.

Players to watch:

If Tillakaratne Dilshan, who has 2 Man of the Match awards till now, can match Sanath Jayasuriya’s contribution of 3 in the 1996 victory, the match will in the bag for Sri Lanka. He has kept the Pallu-scoop tucked away. The wicket will be slow, but can Dilshan go an entire tournament without attempting to take his head off with his own bat?

Sachin Tendulkar’s journey as divine cricketer may be defined and further deified on Saturday. There is an avenue for him to come full circle on his home turf; from the first guard taken in his cricketing infancy to career-fulfilling World Cup win! In a supernatural co-incidence, he will have the chance to feed his country World Cup Sundae along with the cherry on top, his centenarian century. If he cannot conjure a fairytale out of this match, his next best chance would be to feature in Shrek 5!

Prediction: The two teams have taken contrasting paths to the summit. India has leapt gregariously through fiery hoops to come out singed but hardened, whereas Sri Lanka has sauntered angelically, hypnotizing unsuspecting opponent after unsuspecting opponent with the charm of Dilshan, Tharanga and a couple of other wizardly batsmen. India will march into this finale with a revved-up focus, with a bevy of toughening encounters assimilated into their psyche, and a tourneyful of don’ts to serve as guiding light. Sri Lanka will count themselves lucky for having won in a challenging encounter, at last, against an aspiring New Zealand.

Murali will be the second veteran on the park, on Saturday, with a fervent desire to pack in a second World Cup trophy in his cupboard. Tendulkar, however, would have dibs on any World Cup Final that is played in his backyard and which he has never won before. This will be the 3^rd World Cup Final for both teams, with one win in the kitty of each.

Arjuna Ranatunga had, before a single flag had been waved or a single face had been painted in national colours, predicted an India v. Sri Lanka Final. But he wisely stopped just short of predicting the final outcome. Perhaps you would indeed be out of line to predict the finish to such a momentous finale in an off-hand manner. Let us simply look forward avidly to what score the final roll of the 2011 World Cup dice will produce. Hungry yet? Just a while before your Subcontinental sizzler arrives at your plate!

File Photograph Copyright: ICC World T20