India will heavily rely on their batsmen against Lanka

Karachi, Jul 5 (PTI) With their bowlers looking quite
ordinary, India will heavily rely on their in-form batsmen to
to do the job when they take on a confident Sri Lanka in the
final of the Asia Cup cricket tournament here on Sunday.

While the Indian bowlers have not made much of an
impression on the batting-friendly track at the National
stadium, the batsmen have made amends by chasing down big
totals in the tournament so far.

The script could unfold in a similar fashion in the summit
showdown on Sunday, though the Indians will be keen to improve
their bowling and fielding to be able to counter the
islanders.

Blazing starts from the pair of Gautam Gambhir and
Virender Sehwag have so far set the pace for India and captain
Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be hoping that the two openers click
again so that there is less pressure on the middle order
batsmen.

Thrice in the super league stage the batsmen either piled
up or chased big totals and their only defeat in the
competition was the one to Pakistan in the super league stage
when the bowlers could not defend a total of 308.

Irfan Pathan, who returned to the side against Pakistan
after missing the first three games due to a side strain, has
been most expensive and the weak link in the bowling line up
for the Indians.

Indians need to do some serious thinking on their bowling
combination because left-arm spinner Prayug Ojha has not
looked as dangerous as either Sri Lanka's Ajantha Mendis or
Muttiah Murlitharan.

Dhoni, however, defended his bowlers insisting that the
pitches were just too flat and true for batting.

"The spinners are also finding it difficult to get turn in
the middle overs. So the batting has to take the
responsibility and support the bowlers," Dhoni said.

Although on paper both sides appear to be equally balanced
but the Lankans appear to have an edge in the bowling
department.

Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene believes that after
two weeks of regular matches there will be some wear and tear
in the pitches for the final and it is obvious he is counting
on Mendis and Murali to deliver the goods.

Sri Lankan attack is surely strengthened by the presence
of promising Ajantha Mendis, whose unpredictable spin is
proving difficult to be decoded by batsmen.

So heavily are the Sri Lankans banking on Mendis to play
an influential role in the final that they preferred to rest
him for the super league round game against the Indians,
having already qualified for the final.

The Lankan decision was based on the fact that the Indians
have not played Mendis as yet and the finger spinner is
already leading with 11 wickets in the competition.

And Jayawardene would certainly be hoping that Mendis
would be as natural with his bowling as possible because as
yet no one has been able to fathom whether he is an
off-spinner or a leg-spinner as he turns it both ways and also
has a well disguised slider.

The Sri Lankans have come under fire from some former
players and the Pakistan media for not playing Mendis and
experienced seamer Chaminda Vaas against India as it weakened
their bowling attack and allowed the Indians to comfortably
chase a total of 308 runs.

"We wanted to rest them so we rested them," Jayawardene
said after the defeat to India.

Jayawardene admitted they would also have some plans in
place for the Indian openers who appears to be in fine nick.

With hosts Pakistan out of the way, it will be interesting
to see which team wins the support of the home crowd as the
organisers are making hectic efforts to bring in the crowds by
even distributing around 10,000 free tickets for the final.

While Sri Lanka are expected to make two changes for the
final bringing back Mendis and Vaas the Indians will ponder on
whether to go in with five specialist bowlers or just four.

All in all, the Asia Cup is certain to close with a bang
with a keenly contested final expected between two top one-day
sides.

For the records, the Sri Lankans are the defending
champions having beaten India in the last final in 2004 at
home and in eight tournaments their record is awesome as they
have reached the final seven times.

Teams (from):

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Capt), Virender Sehwag,
Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Robin Uthappa, Yusuf Pathan,
Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Piyush Chawla, Manpreet Gony,
Ishant Sharma, R.P. Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Praveen Kumar.

Sri Lanka: Mahela Jayawardene (Capt), Tillakaratne
Dilshan, Dilhara Fernando, Sanath Jayasuriya, Chamara
Kapugedera, Nuwan Kulasekara, Ajantha Mendis, Thilan Thushara,
Jehan Mubarak, Muttiah Muralitharan, Kumar Sangakkara, Chamara
Silva, Mahela Udawatte, Chaminda Vaas, Kaushalya Weeraratne.
Match starts at 3.30 pm IST. PTI COR