Off Stump

April 2nd, 2011 is a day I'll remember for a long time. Not just for this shot but the way in which India handled the final overall. Barring the last 5 overs of the SL innings and the first 5 of India's innings, I've rarely seen the team look in such complete control on a big day. It was just brilliant overall and for me will remain a highlight of my India watching days forever. And I would have to disagree with Nirmal Shekhar that this victory was not as epochal as the first one in 1983. Back then, there were no expectations from the team and therefore no pressure, whereas this team was expected to win from day one by a billion plus people. Performing under that kind of pressure is an achievement that can't be overstated. I do agree with Andy Bull's view that there is going to be a big talent drain post the World Cup. Ponting, Sangakkara, Vettori, and Smith have already given up the limited overs captaincy and Murali has played his last international game. Tendu...

Less than 20 minutes to go before play starts. Sangakkara of the fake accent has won what could be a crucial toss but I'm surprised that Sri Lanka decided to drop Mendis. Maybe they saw India's struggles against Ajmal and Hafeez and decided to go for multiple off-tweakers. For India, Sreesanth is the big gamble as always and lets hope he can keep control and knock off a couple of the top order. Even if his first spell reads 4-0-32-2, that would be a big success. Lots of focus on Tendulkar and Muralitharan but its important to remember that Sri Lanka have six survivors from their last final (Sangakkara, Jayawardene, Dilshan, Tharanga, and Malinga apart from Murali) and India have five (Sehwag, Yuvraj, Zaheer, and Harbhajan apart from Sachin). I think its these nine players that will be decisive in today's game. They're all seasoned pros now and how they set the tone will swing the game. Play!

Its a nice coincidence that Dhoni and Sangakkara are both wicket-keeper batsmen who captain their teams. The former's probably the better captain but the latter is clearly the better batsman and their keeping is roughly equally good. Which is what the two teams are as well. Just look at the line-ups - one legend on each side, two all time national greats (Sehwag, Zaheer for India and Sangakkara, Jayawardene for SL) plus a clutch who would like to be remembered as all time national greats (Dhoni, Yuvraj, Harbhajan and Gambhir for Ind, Dilshan, Malinga, Mendis and Matthews for SL). Predicting a winner is almost impossible. All I'm hoping for really is a close, evenly fought battle unlike the last 4 World Cup finals. Trouble is if you look at the matches these two teams have played over the last two years (and they've played a lot as Sidharth Monga points out flippantly :-)) there have been just 5 games (out of 34) that could be deemed close. So that plus the WC finals recen...