The classic cop-out reply to the question ‘Who do you think will win the World Cup 2007?’ is, ‘My heart says Sri Lanka, but my head says Australia!’ This is an easier answer to give if one is from the subcontinent. There is always an affinity toward your neighbors than some far off place down under. Yes, the heart says Sri Lanka, and there’s no doubt that if Sri Lanka play with all their hearts then they could stop the Australian juggernaut.
They will be nervous, no doubt about that. It’s all right to be so. They are after all playing the defending champions who are looking to do a hat trick of wins. India were in a similar situation in 1983. That time, they were playing the West Indies, who too had won the previous two World Cups in 1975 and 1979. Against all odds, India had got to the finals, beating teams they had barely stretched in previous encounters. So the players knew they had got to the finals, not necessarily because they had played good cricket, but because they had played better cricket than their earlier round opponents. Sri Lanka on the other hand have reached the finals because they have played some great cricket and on the leadership scales, Jayawardene has been far superior to the other skippers. The ploy of not exposing Chaminda Vaas and the wiles of Muthiah Muralitharan came in for flak from just about every quarter. That’s because Jayawardene was upfront about the need for keeping these senior players fresh for the bigger games later on. New Zealand did the same, with Shane Bond and Jacob Oram, their two new-ball bowlers not playing against Australia, but gave the reason of injury which Jayawardene too could have done but chose not to. That shows confidence in his tactics and a belief that whatever the rest of the world may say, it’s the team’s interest that is paramount. His batting too in the semifinals showed that he was aware that if Lanka had wickets in hand then they could swing their bats around and make up for the slow scoring rate in these overs. That’s exactly what happened. The skipper knew that the Lankan batting has not been consistent and if the senior pro Sanath Jayasuriya does not score, then either his vice-captain Kumara Sangakkara or he himself has to stay and ensure that the team has a healthy score to defend. He also displayed enough faith in Upul Tharanga, who repaid that with a run-a-ball knock in the semifinals that kept Sri Lanka going and actually allowed Jayawardene to settle in at the crease. Tharanga has had an ordinary World Cup till the semifinals, but has a good record in one day cricket.
Much will depend on the start Sanath Jayasuriya gives the Sri Lankans. He has not always delivered in pressure games and this is his big chance to go out on a high. Kumara Sangakkara too has not been as prolific as he normally is, but he is the one man in the Sri Lankan team who can match the Aussies in the verbals. Sri Lanka’s strength has been the emergence of Chamara Silva, a classy middle order batsman and Tillekratne Dilshan, showing tremendous thinking in the few overs he gets to bat. Dilshan also is as competitive as they come, unafraid of anything the opposition has to deliver.
In 1996, when they won the title beating Australia in the finals, it was the depth in the Sri Lankan batting that clinched it for them. They had someone of the class of Mahanama batting at No. 7, which meant that even if the top order failed to take off, there was still some batting left. If, as expected, Sri Lanka bring in Maharaoof, it will not only strengthen the lower order but also the fielding and he is more likely to bowl in the ‘channel’ than Dilhara Fernando does. Chaminda Vaas also has turned out to be a dangerous lower order hitter and the only batting bunnies are Malinga and Muralitharan. Both Malinga and Muralitharan are Lanka’s trump cards. They have not been collared so far in the tournament, with none of the batsmen being able to pick them up. Malinga’s slinging action, which hides the ball from the batsman’s view till the actual delivery, makes it hard to play shots off him, and he uses that advantage by firing yorkers which disturb the furniture behind the batsman. Muralitharan, along with Shane Warne, has brought a whole new dimension to the game with spin bowling that was nothing short of magic.
Sri Lanka will depend on the two ‘Js’ (Jayasuriya and Jayawardene) for putting up a big score and the two ‘Ms’ (Muralitharan and Malinga) to curtail the opposition score.
How well the others rally around these four key players will decide how the final goes, and if it goes down to the final over of the match, then quite frankly it does not matter who wins the 2007 World Cup.
