Indian captain M.S.Dhoni for the fourth consecutive time in this series has won the toss in 4th one day international and elected to bat first. Indian team got of to flying start at the end of ninth over they were 42/0 with V.Kholi batting on 25 runs and G.Gambhir batting on 15 runs.
Indian team after loosing their first game at Dambulla now stand in a position where they can seal the series when they will take on vulnerable looking Sri Lankan in today’s game. Sri Lanka have their backs to the wall and need to win the 4th one day international to stay alive in the series. The loss here will give M.S.Dhoni and his men another trophy. For Sri Lanka the scenario is similar to last year's home series against England, which they lost by 2-3 after winning their first game. Sri Lanka just have one day in between the games to get their acts together and regroup for the do-or-die encounters against the Indians. Indian team on the other will be more relax after winning the Sunday encounter. However rains are likely to exploit the battle between two Asian giants. Indian team has also some work needs to be cut out in their batting department especially their top three and if they got good start then no one can stop the Indians from winning the Idea Cup 2008. Watch out for S.Jayasurya and K.Sangkara: Both batsman struggle to perform up to their expectation and this will be great opportunity for both of them to perform for the team which are in lots of pressure to save the series against Indians. Kumar Sangkara has quite series so far with scores of 19, 2 and 9. Both batters may look to overcome their performance in the today’s game. Zaheer Khan and Preveen Kumar: India new ball bowler enjoyed bowling against the Lankans in the series especially with the new ball. Both bowlers performed exceptionally well and Indian team need just one another performance from both of these to wrap up the series. Pitch and conditions As we have seen the team batting first has more advantage on Premdasa wickets so the captain winning the toss will have no hesitation in electing to bat first. The pitch is expected to be same as used on Sunday so any score between 240 to 260 runs will be a winning total on Premdasa wicket. Team News Sri Lanka after disastrous performance from their middle order may opt for dropping Chamara Silva and bringing Mahela Udawatte in place of him. On the other hand India doesn’t want to disturb their winning combination so they will go into the match with the same XI as played on Sunday. Stats & Trivia C.Vaas completed his quota of 10 overs in the last match without picking a single wickets so he still needs one more wicket to join 400 wickets club in ODI. Sri Lankan's top order failed miserably in last 20 innings and they have gone without a half-century partnership for the opening wicket against the top teams.
Final Playing XI for both teams (Match is schedule to begin at 14:30 PM India Time)
India Squad: Gautam Gambhir, V.Kohli, S.Raina, Yuvraj Singh, M.S.Dhoni (Captain), S.Badrinath, R.Sharma, H.Singh, Z.Khan, M.Patel, P.Kumar. Sri Lanka Squad: S.Jayasurya, M.Warnapura, Kumar Sangakkara (WK), M.Jayawardne (Captain), C.Kapugedra, Tillekaratne Dilshan, C. Vaas, Nuwan Kalusekara, T.Tushara, Muthiah Muralidaran, Ajantha Mendis. |
