Sri Lanka buckle down after early wicket

Mumbai: Zaheer Khan got reward of the perfect line and length as the Indian bowling spearhead got the wicket of Sri Lankan opener Upul Tharanga (2) in the World Cup final at the Wankhede in Mumbai on Saturday.

S Sreesanth, who replaced Ashish Nehra in the Indian playing eleven, supported Zaheer well as the two opening bowlers didn't give any leeway to the Sri Lankan batsmen after Kumar Sangakkara won the toss and decided to bat first.

The left-armer bowled back-to-back maiden overs to the Lankan openers that created the pressure and ultimately the wicket fell.

Tharanga was caught brilliantly in the slip by diving Virender Sehwag.

Again Indian captain MS Dhoni pulled a rabbit out of his hat as he picked S Sreesanth in place of Ashish Nehra in the playing eleven.

Sri Lanka got a bigger jolt among the two sides as their key all-rounder Angelo Mathews was ruled out due to a hamstring injury. It changed their team composition altogether, which had four changes in the playing XI.

Chamara Kapugedara came in place of Chamara Silva, Suraj Randiv for Ajantha Mendis, Nuwan Kulasekara for Rangana Herath and Thissara Perera for Angelo Mathews.

Both teams, except a hiccup or two, have had a smooth journey upto the final, with India going through sterner tests against Australia and Pakistan as compared to Sri Lanka, who had smooth sailing against England and New Zealand in the last eight and last four respectively.

Though they were beaten by Pakistan in the round robin-format, it just gave them the necessary fillip to perform in the rest of the tournament.

Teams:

India: Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (c/wk), R Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel

Sri Lanka: Tillakaratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga, Kumar Sangakkara (c/wk), Mahela Jaywardene, Thilan Samaraweera, Chamara Kapugedara, Thisara Perera, Lasith Malinga, Suraj Randiv, Muttiah Muralitharan, Nuwan Kulasekara

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