MUMBAI – India all set to take on Sri Lanka tomorrow (Saturday/April 02) at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. The fixture promises to be a real thriller not as big as the second semi-final between Pakistan and India; but it is expected to be a crusher as first time in the World Cup history two Asian nations will be battling it out for ultimate pride.
Sri Lanka is having injury woes of spin master Muttiah Muralitharan and all rounder Angelo Mathews; but the latest news suggest that Muralitharan will take any kind of risk to play the big match; which happened to be his last appearance on International arena. Sri Lankan management has already called-up veteran seamer Chaminda Vass and off-spinner Suraj Randiv as stand-by players to fulfil any contingency vacuum subject to approval of ICC.
On the other hand; India is having their own problems associated with the final eleven for the big match due to injury of Ashish Nehra; who played a key role in the semi-final triumph against arch-rival Pakistan. The likely choices to replace Nehara are Sreesanth and Ravichandran Ashwin, but Indian skipper MS Dhoni said that he was yet to make up his mind on whether to go for a third seamer, or play two seamers and an extra spinner.
Both teams have been one-to-one seven times in the history of World Cups; results favouring Sri Lanka with 4 victories while India won twice with one match washed out by rain.
The match will start on 14:00 PST (14:30 local time, 09:00 GMT).
Both teams will announce their final eleven before the match from the following available squads:
India (From): Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni(w/c), Yusuf Pathan, Piyush Chawla, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ashish Nehra, Suresh Raina, S Sreesanth
Sri Lanka (From): Upul Tharanga, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara(w/c), Mahela Jayawardene, Thilan Samaraweera, Chamara Silva, Angelo Mathews, Nuwan Kulasekara, Lasith Malinga, Ajantha Mendis, Muttiah Muralitharan, Dilhara Fernando, Rangana Herath, Chamara Kapugedera, Thissara Perera
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