Online edition of Sunday Observer

Sri Lanka’s captain Sanath Jayasuriya smiles during a news conference in Colombo, September 28, 2002. Sri Lanka takes on India in the finals of the ICC Champions Trophy on Sunday. (Reuters)

It will be an all Asia final when Sri Lanka meets India in a compelling battle of supremacy in the ICC Champions Trophy cricket final worth $ 250,000.00 at the R. Premadasa International cricket stadium in a day/night encounter today commencing at 2.30 pm.

The Indians were the runners-up in the previous ICC Trophy tournament held in Kenya, losing to New Zealand who have made their exit from the Championship and Sri Lanka will feature for the first time in a final of a ICC Championship trophy.

"Sri Lanka beat us in the final last time and we hope to prove we're a better side this time," India skipper Saurav Ganguly said, referring to his team's defeat in a triangular series final here last year.

The Sri Lankans will no doubt have the advantage of playing in front of a highly vociferous home crowd and at the same time the Indians too, are no strangers playing at this venue under given conditions.

The Lankans are expected to make a couple of changes. They will most probably take the field with three pacemen, namely Chaminda Vaas, Dilhara Fernando and Pulasthi Gunaratne at the expense of Kumara Dharmasena or Upul Chandana.

The Indians possess a strong batting line which includes skipper Gangully, Dravid, Kaif, Laxman, Mongia, Yuraj Singh. However, the focus in recent times has been shifted from Sachin Tendulkar to Virendra Sehwag who looks a replica of Tendulkar while batting or in his mannerism. Sehwag's devastating century made England to pack their bags and go home in a preliminary round game and India found a place in the semi final with an astonishing win over South Africa in a semi final match.

Sri Lanka skipper Sanath Jayasuriya said that the match could turn out to be a stiff competition with batting of both sides on even keel, but admitted that his team will have the slight edge over the bowling backed up by enthusiastic fielding which they have been performing well in the last games.

Sachin Tendulkar at a practice session in Colombo

India, too, have played enough matches to study the behaviour of the pitch and ground conditions at Khettarama. However, the inclusion of 32 year-old Javagal Srinath who had earlier announced his retirement from test cricket but made himself available for the one-day internationals will get his chance to prove his worth in the Indian one day team. Srinath will come in as a replacement for Ashish Nehra who is nursing an injured finger and will miss the 'big' game.

India (from): Sourav Gangully (Captain), Virendra Sehwag, Rahul Dravid (Wicket keeper), V. V. S. Laxman, Sachin Tendulkar, Mohammed Kaif, Yuraj Singh, Dinesh Mongia, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan, Ajith Agarkar, Javagal Srinath,

Sri Lanka: Sanath Jayasuriya(Captain), Marvan Atapattu, Kumar Sangakkara (Wicket keeper), Aravinda de Silva, Mahela Jayawardena, Russel Arnold, Kumara Dharmasena, Chaminda Vaas, Upul Chandana, Muttiah Muralidharan, Dilhara Fernando, Pulasthy Gunaratne.