Sri Lanka and Pakistan will meet in the finals of the ICC World T20 to be played on Sunday at Lord’s after the Islanders disposed off the West Indies and the South Africans were handed over a pink slip from the tournament by Pakistan.
Sri Lanka (8/11 at William Hill to win the tournament) goes into the game as marginal favourites. This is because of the consistency that they have exhibited through the entire duration of the fortnight; having won six games in a row to reach this far. On the other hand, Pakistan had had an appalling game or two, but the form in the later stages of the tournament means that Sky Bet offers 6/5 for them to get better of Sri Lanka.
Pakistan will go into the game knowing well that their strength lies in their bowling. Having said that, they will need their openers, Kamran Akmal (4/1 at Coral to be best Pakistani batsman) and Shahzaib Hasan (5/1 at 888Sport to be top batsman for Pakistan) to fire against the new ball, because the Lankan twirlers have had this tendency of running through the middle-order without much ado in previous games. Younus Khan (9/2 at Paddy Power to be best Pakistani batsman in the game) has been Pakistan’s highest run-getter in the tournament so far, and he will look to continue playing the role of soothing the Pakistani nerves in the middle overs.
However, the one Pakistani batsman, who I think has looked decently good without converting his starts has been Shoaib Malik (15/2 at Coral to be top Pakistani batsman) and my money will be on him to come up with the goods for this final. While Shahid Afridi (11/2 at 888Sport to be best Pakistani bat) did manage a knock to die for in the game against South Africa, he is far too inconsistent to be expected to repeat the magic in successive games.
Sri Lanka’s biggest batting discovery of the tournament has been T.Dilshan’s (11/4 at Coral to be best in Sri Lanka) form at the top of the order and if his unbeaten 96 is anything to go by, he looks good for much more. The problem for the team arises at the other end, with an unusually erratic Sanath Jayasuriya (7/2 at Coral to be the best Sri Lankan batsman) as an opener and Sangakkara’s (4/1 at Paddy Power to be best Sri Lankan batsman) sudden plummeting from being anchor of the inning to being a nervous starter. Mahela Jayawardene (5/1 at 888Sport to be best Sri Lankan batsman) had a couple of nice knocks in the lead-up to the semi-finals, and he does look to be finding his touch back.
However, none of the others, Chamara Silva, Jehan Mubarak or Angelo Matthews have impressed so far and do not look like they could turn games around with the willow in their hand.
The bowling for both teams has been the obvious stand-out. In fact, there is a spooky resemblance between the chosen personnel of this department for both Pakistan and Sri Lanka. If M.Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis have painted the town red for Sri Lanka, then Saeed Ajmal and Shahis Afridi aren’t too far behind either, while it is very difficult to choose from the slog-over yorkers and slower deliveries of Umar Gul and Lasith Malinga!
So, it could just boil down to being a battle between the support bowlers like Angelo Mathews – who slapped the West Indians with three wickets in the first over of the semi-finals – and Mohhamad Aamer, a 17-year old playing his first ever series!
Tips:
Favourites: Sri Lanka (8/11 at William Hill)
Top Sri Lankan batsman: Mahela Jayawardene (5/1 at 888Sport)
Top Pakistani batsman: Shoaib Malik (15/2 at Coral)
Most economic bowler: Saeed Ajmal (4/1 at Stan James)
