Home advantage gives India edge

When the ICC Cricket World Cup began on February 19 there were 14 teams in the hunt for the title; at the end of the preliminary round, on March 20, and after 42 matches, there were eight; and today, after the quarter-finals and the semi-finals, after 11 exciting days and six memorable matches, there are two standing, the two who will contest tomorrow's showdown.

After 48 matches, the two teams still alive are not England or Australia, and they are not Pakistan, New Zealand, or South Africa; they are India and Sri Lanka, winners of the semi-finals against Pakistan and, surprisingly, against New Zealand.

Who will win the Cup? Will it be India, one-time winners in 1983 and one-time finalists in 2003, or will it be Sri Lanka, one-time champions in 1996 and one time-finalists in 2007?

It is a tough call, not because they boast similar records in terms of winning the Cup on one occasion each, in terms if being finalists on one other occasion each, and in terms of losing to the same team, Australia, in their one other attempt at victory, but because they have both been through bruising battles to get to the final, and because they also parade some of the world's best players and two of the game's finest captains.

India, conquerors of the West Indies 28 years ago, possess the best batsman of the day and one of the best of all time in Sachin Tendulkar, and with Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kholi, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, and with captain and wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh also in their line-up, they have arguably the best batting line-up in the world.

Add to their batting strength a bowling combination of left-arm pacers Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra, as well as Munaf Patel, and off-spinner Harbhajan, backed up by the left-arm spin of Yuvraj, plus their fielding, and India must be brimful of confidence.

Sri Lanka, winners over Australia 15 years ago, possess a batting line-up of Tilakaratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga, captain Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene. Thilan Samaraweera, Chamara Silva, and Angelo Mathews, and that will be supported by a bowling attack of pacers Lasith Malinga and Mathews, plus the off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, the two-way spinner Ajantha Mendis, and the left-arm spinner Ragana Herath.

The surprise here is that India, the land of spin bowling, are likely to go into the showdown, into the last battle, with three pacers and one genuine spin bowler, while Sri Lanka, their cocky neighbours, are expected to enter the winner-take-all contest with one specialist pacer and three regular spin bowlers.

One-time master or pupil

Who will win it, India or Sri Lanka, the one-time master or the one-time pupil?

Although I am not a betting man, if I am forced to I would put a dollar or two on India, if nothing else that they are the home team, that the Wankhede Stadium in the heart of Mumbai will be jam-packed with Indians with only a few Sri Lankans, and that despite the fact that it took four lucky escapes and two umpire reviews for him to shine against Pakistan last Tuesday, Tendulkar plays for India.

In terms of size, population, economy, and cricket history, India are like Goliath when compared to Sri Lanka. Like David, however, Sri Lanka could cut down India and walk away with the prize - especially if Malinga, Muralitharan, or Mendis come to fight.

Regardless of which team wins the Cup, it would be nice if the 2011 World Cup end with a thriller, with a performance or two to make it memorable, to match those of 1975 when Clive Lloyd, 102, and Viv Richards with three run-outs, paraded their skills on centre stage; and of 1979 with Collis King, 86, and Richards, 138 not out; 1983 when Kapil Dev took a stunning catch off Richards running away from the wicket towards the mid-wicket boundary; 1996 when Aravinda de Silva stroked an undefeated innings of 107; 2003 with Ricky Ponting's 140 not out; and of 2007, in the West Indies, when Adam Gilchrist starred with a swashbuckling innings of 149 at the top of order.

Tomorrow, the winners could be the team which produces a star, a bowler, Harbhajan or Muralitharan, who baffles the opposing batsmen and reduce them to strokelessness; or a batsman, Tendulkar or Sangakkara, Sehwag or Dilshan, who finds the nerve, the composure, to parade their class before a full house on final day at the Wankhede.