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Crown at stake
Who will be the next rulers of Asian One-day cricket?
By Marlon Fernandopulle
The atmosphere will be electric,the players will be all pumped up and the spectators will be tensed sitting at the edge of their seats when Sri Lanka and India battle it out in a blockbuster Asia cup final under floodlights at the R Premadasa stadium today.

Hosts Sri Lanka who have played true to their form will start off as favourites but will be up against a re-juvenated Indian side which is looking to ride on the momentum of an epic victory earlier this week.

Sri Lanka has figured in all Asia cup finals except in the inaugural tournament. However they have tasted success only twice and will be eager to improve on that statistic. Skipper Marvan Atapattu was a confident man on the eve of the cup final."We had a very good game with the Indians on Tuesday without two of our key strike bowlers. Overall we have done very well in the tournament upto now. We now need to add the icing on the cake tomorrow"

The return of champion off spinner Muttiah Muralitharan and star medium pacer Chaminda Vaas to the side has not only boosted the confidence of the Lankan players but has also tilted the scales towards the hosts. Lanky Nuwan Zoysa who broke down with a cramp during the Indian game has fully recovered and will be in the starting line up.

After shrugging off a poor start to the tournament, former skipper Sanath Jayasuriya has regained his lost touch and is batting at his best. With back to back centuries the thirty five year old Jayasuriya has shown a hunger for runs once again."Most countries have suffered at the hands of Jayasuriya and the Indians incidentally have tasted it more than others",said Atapattu who no doubt will look upto his predecessor for another big innings.

Apart from skipper Marvan Atapattu the rest of the Lankan top order has been among the runs during the current tournament. The skipper has very often played the anchor role and batted throughout the innings. He has done it on a couple of big occasions and all Lankans will be eager to witness another big one from the skipper. With Avishka Gunawardene,Mahela Jayawardene,Kumar Sangakkara and T M Dilshan all in good nick the Lankan batting line up looks imposing.

Sourav Ganguly's Indians will be eager to prove that their victory over Sri Lanka was no flash in the pan. They are aware that their route to the final was not an easy task. "We have not played very well in the tournament .We lost to Sri Lanka by 12 runs in Dambulla and we won a very close game the other night. We fought till the very end so I will say it was a good effort. Now we are just one game away and we have to give our everything," he said. The captain however dismissed that they will be targeting Jayasuriya.

"Sanath has been scoring against us. We have our plans for him, but we must not forget that Sri Lanka also have other batsman who are capable of big scores, it's not only Jayasuriya." The big plus for India is that their master blaster Sachin Tendulkar is in good nick and Virendra Shewag has regained his lost touch. With skipper Ganguly ,Rahul Dravid, Yuvaraj Singh, Mohamed Kaif and VVS Laksman to follow, India boasts of a formidable batting line up that can worry the Lankans.

However the weak link in the Indian team is their bowling attack. Apart from youngster Irfan Pathan the rest of the Indian attack comprising the medium pacers and the spinners look ordinary. Balaji has been struggling to get into rhythmn while Zaheer Khan is still not 100% fit.

With the wicket expected to get slower as the game progresses the Indians like the Lankans will go with their two specialist spinners Anil Kumble and Harbajahn Singh. Part time spinners Shewag,Tendulkar and Yuvaraj will also be a handy especially if the visitors are bowling second.

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