Mini World Cup a great journey

by ELMO RODRIGOPULLE

SOLIDARITY - Lankan Skipper Sanath Jayasuriya finds it in veteran Aravinda de Silva

Sangakkara - Jayawardene

Muralitharan - Vaas

Arnold - Atapattu

Chandana - Gunaratne

The International Cricket Conference Mini World Cup final could not have had a better ending. Although tagged a mini world cup, with all countries fielding their best teams this tournament is as good as the World Cup proper.

It is the first time in the history of the World Cup that two teams from Asia will be figuring in final. This honour has gone to India and Sri Lanka.

With the Asian neighbours fronting up in the final, the Premadasa Stadium will not be able to hold the capacity crowd that is sure to queue up from early in the morning to watch their stars in action.

News has it that there is a large contingent of visitors from India already here and that several hundreds more were arriving yesterday and a lot more today.

All hotels around the city and lodging houses are packed to capacity with news that some of them are sharing four to five a room.

India and Sri Lanka played the better cricket throughout the tournament and richly deserve to figure in this prestigious final. They went through with an 100 per cent unbeaten record and their entry into the final has been well received in all quarters.

Sri Lanka who kicked started the tournament brushed aside the strong Pakistanis with a wonderful team effort. The Pakistanis took the field confident that they could reverse the defeats inflicted on them by Sri Lanka in recent outings.

But the Lankans led ably by the dashing Sanath Jayasuriya who scored a top class century, cleverly assisted by the experienced Aravinda de Silva helped the Lankans waltz to victory by eight wickets.

Sachin Tendulkar - Skipper Ganguly

Virender Sehwag - Rahul Dravid

Zaheer Khan - Yuvraj Singh

New find Mohammed Kaiff at extreme right and Harbhajan Singh (second from right) celebrate with team mates

This was after the Lankan bowlers and fielders gave an object lesson to dismiss the visitors for 200 and get the runs for victory losing just two wickets.

Sri Lanka had it very easy against in the inexperienced Dutch and then they showed their true prowess by stuffing the Kangaroos without having to raise much of a sweat in the semi.

When the Aussie openers Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist were threatening to take away the game from the Lankans, it was the excellent thinking of skipper Jayasuriya that stalled the batsmen in their tracks. Jayasuriya did well to drop paceman Dilhara Fernando and take with him an extra spinner. And what dividends that move paid.

With the wicket surprisingly taking spin very early in the game the Aussie batsmen looked novices against this type of bowling and giving a mediocre batting display surrendered for a paltry 161. It was a pathetic batting display when one considers the fact the Aussies have one of the best batting line ups in world cricket today.

And when the Lankans took strike they batted sensibly once again shown the way by skipper Jayasuriya ably assisted by Atapattu and Sangakkara and victory, and a very sweet one at that came by seven wickets. As for the Indians their entry into the final was not an easy one. They had two tough opponents in Zimbabwe and England. But playing the better cricket and cleverly led by Sourav Ganguly they pulled through and will be readying to fire all cylinders today.

With an injury to paceman Asishi Nehra, the Indians are taking no chances and have summoned the retired Javagal Srinath who is in England in the county scene for this all important final.

The Indians were given a shock by the Zimbabweans who rattled their early batting. But once again it was that promising batsman Mohammed Kaif who came to the rescue of the Indians to score a magnificent century and lead them to victory.

Somehow or the other the Indians seem to give of their best when up against England. And England just seem to crumble when facing the Indians.

England batting first lost their two best batsmen Trescothick and Hussain early, but recovered sufficiently to post 269, thanks to well compiled half century from newcomer Blackwell.

But centuries from skipper Ganguly and Sehwag who were involved in a big opening stand of 192 took away any hopes that the English had of victory. Ganguly and Sehwag treated the England bowlers with disdain hitting them at will to all corners and over it as well as they wished. In the end the thrashing was so difficult to stomach and what one saw was a dejected England captain Nasser Hussain hiding his face with his cap on his way to the pavilion.

Then in the first semi-final the Indians and the South Africans played out a heart stopper. India finally held their nerve to strangle the South Africans and win by 10 runs and entered the finals.

South Africans seemed to be sailing to victory after dismissing India for 261 with Herchelle Gibbs and Jacques Kallis going great guns and spanking the Indian bowling to all corners and over it as well.

It was then that the shrewd captaincy of Ganguly came to the forefront. He switched his bowlers cleverly relying on the off spinners of Sehwag who had earlier scored with 59 to take them to victory helped by some magnificent fielding where Yuvraj Singh was outstanding taking probably the catch of the tournament to dismiss Jonty Rhodes and turn the game around.

India snatched victory from the jaws of defeat will aptly describe India's win over South Africa.

No one will grudge Sri Lanka and India entering of the final. They played the better cricket in the six games and richly deserve to fight for the big money that will be on offer to the winners of the final.