After loosing the close encounter against the Australians on Sunday Indian team gave Sri Lankan’s an outside chance to get into the final, if the Sri Lankan’s able to beat India and Australia in their remaining two matches then Sri Lanka will be the other team to play Australia in best of three final of CB series. On the other hand if Sri Lanka do beat India at Hobart but looses their last encounter against Australia at MCG then India will go through to the final. But Indian team don’t want to get into this similar equation and want to beat the Lankan’s in tomorrow match to be played at Hobart to secure their place in the Final. The good thing for the Indians is their few batters are in good form and they will like to go hard at the Sri Lankan’s. The main worry factor for the Indian team is their opening pair Virendra Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar who fails miserably to score up to their reputation. In seven innings Sachin Tendulkar able to score just 128 runs at an average of 18.29. On the other hand Sri Lankan bowling is excellent through out the tournament but their batsmen fail to score and that is why Sri Lanka team is on the verge of getting out of the tournament. Only two of the Sri Lankan players Kumar Sangkara and M. Jayawardne able to make some runs in the tournament. Main worry factor for them is their dashing opener Sanath Jayasurya who is yet to fire in the tournament. With the host Australia already into the final, now its only India or Sri Lanka will be one of the other team to make it into the final of CB series. India is having 12 points from seven matches and Sri Lanka is with 6 points in one less match. Win for India tomorrow at Hobart will throw out the Sri Lankan’s out of the competition. India is likely to go into this match with same playing XI which almost gave the Australians a hard time at Sydney on Sunday. On the other hand Sri Lankan’s might bring N.Kulasekara or C.Kapugeda in place of D.Parera. Indian captain M.S.Dhoni said “In any case, we would like to seal the match against Sri Lanka and not leave it to the last game between Australia and Sri Lanka. This game is very important for us.” So let’s hope his word will be true otherwise we have to pray for Australian in last league match so they can beat the Sri Lankan’s. Match will start from 04.30 AM (Indian Time which will be Day Match at Bellerive Oval, Hobart) Likely Playing XI for Both teams: Sri Lanka: S.Jayasurya, T.Dilshan, M.Jayawardne (C), K.Sangkara (WK), C.Silva, Nuwan Kulasekara, F.Mefroof, C.Vaas, I.Amarsinghe, L.Malinga, M.Muralitharan. India: Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, R.Sharma, Robin Uthappa, V.Sehwag, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt, wk), Yuvraj Singh, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Sreesanth, Ishant Sharma. |
