Author Zaheer Haque.
Sri Lanka boasts the best opening partnership in the whole tournament with Dilshan and Tharanga. They have put on two double century partnerships in this tournament a record for a single world cup.
Dilshan has been in brilliant form throughout the tournament and is the leading run scorer in the tournament
Tharanga has also had a good world cup and fifth highest run scorer in the tournament.
Srilanka at number three have their best batsmen in Sangakkara. Sangakkara is also their captain and wicket keeper. He has been outstanding in all aspects of his game throughout the whole tournament. Sangakkara is the fourth highest run scorer in this world cup and has the highest average of all in this world cup of 104.
Jayawardene at number four is their most experienced batsmen. He has had a very poor world cup and has only scored a total of 201 runs in his six innings of which hundred of those were scored in one innings.
Srilanka number five to seven of Samaraweera, Silva and Matthews haven’t featured much throughout the tournament with the bat. This is because of the great batting & contribution of the top three. These three did get reasonable time in the middle under some pressure against New Zealand to win the semi final.
Muralitharan is their best bowler and world’s best bowler. He is leading the way with 15 wickets in the tournament for Srilanka despite playing through injury.
Malinga is their fastest bowler he is good both with new ball also with the older ball. He has a very unorthodox action and has taken 11 wickets in this tournament.
Srilanka have also had useful contributions from Mendis, Dilshan who have taken 7 wickets each. Also Matthews and Perera have contributed as well taking 6 wickets each.
India
Tendulkar and Sehwag have been in great form as an opening partnership in this tournament.
Tendulkar has had a tremendous World cup scoring his 99th international 100 (Test and ODI combined) and is only three runs behind Dilshan as second highest run scorer in the tournament.
Sehwag has also been in good form throughout the tournament and still has the tournaments highest score of 175 in the opening match against Bangladesh.
However India’s number three and four Gambhir and Kohli have had poor run in the whole tournament both averaging in their 30’s. Dhoni their captain and wicket keeper hasn’t done much with that bat either.
The best batsman by far for India in the middle order has been Yuvraj Singh who has had brilliant world cup averaging 85 and the eighth leading run scorer. He has also done brilliantly with the ball with 13 wickets. He also has won several Man of the Match awards.
Raina who has come into the team as the extra batsmen instead of Yusuf Pathan last few games has done reasonably well late on for India.
India’s bowling has been led by Zaheer Khan who has had a great world cup. He is 2nd highest wicket taker in this tournament with 19 wickets and needs 3 wickets in the final to finish as leading wicket taker.
Munaf Patel has supported Zaheer Khan with 11 wickets in the tournament.
However the most disappointing and poor bowling performance by far has been by Harbhajan Singh India’s number one spin bowler. He has taken only 8 wickets at an average of 42.
India has also played the following bowlers, Nehra, Chawla and Ashwin in this tournament as well.
Sri Lanka or India?
Having looked through both line ups one can see both teams have had brilliant opening partnerships. This has given both teams to fast starts and to post large totals. Also this has taken some of the pressure off the rest of the batting line up to play their natural game.
The middle order hasn’t fired for both teams with the exception of Sangakkara at number three for Sri Lanka and Yuvraj Singh at number five for India.
Bowling in this tournament Sri Lanka has the edge over India with more of their bowlers contributing with the ball and picking up vital wickets.
I think it be a very close game and will go to the last over of the match with both teams having the chance to win. Sri Lanka will hold their nerve better than India in the final over and win the final.
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