Prediction of glory is hard to make

April 01, 2011 02:48 am | Updated 02:48 am IST - London:

UNIQUE: Saturday's will be the first all-Asian World Cup final and the first in which both sides will be led by wicket-keepers - M.S. Dhoni and Kumar Sangakkara.

UNIQUE: Saturday's will be the first all-Asian World Cup final and the first in which both sides will be led by wicket-keepers - M.S. Dhoni and Kumar Sangakkara.

Semifinals are notoriously limp, turgid and irritating so take no notice of events in Premadasa and Mohali. Semifinals are also won by the favourites so we can look forward to the final in busy Mumbai where India will fulfil its destiny and Sri Lanka retreat to its heavenly island muttering that all the fates are its enemies.

Perhaps the sporting gods have already decreed that Sachin will score his 100th hundred in his home town on this day of days. That is also his destiny but he played so wretchedly against Pakistan — for top score for heaven's sake — that the prediction of glory is hard to make.

My most fervent wish is that the final passes peacefully. I have pleasant memories of the Mumbai seafront area and nights of comfort in the Taj besides huge admiration for the courage of those journalists who risked all to bring the horrors of the invasion to our screens two years ago and the police and soldiers who brought it to an end.

Now it is the ideal stage for the confrontation of opposites. India, boasts of so many well-trained, experienced stars against Sri Lanka's stroke players and experimental spinners. It is, of course, the first all-Asian final and the first in which both sides have been led by wicket-keepers.

Different mould

The two men who will stand, leap, scream and direct from behind the wickets on Saturday are from a different mould. Their fellows ought to disown them for they have few of the characteristics of the usual run of men with their own oversized gloves and of captains who have suffered the slings and arrows of ill fortune that go with leading a one-day side.

M.S. Dhoni is the calm influence India has needed to follow the long, strong leadership of Sourav Ganguly. He is able to bat forcefully, arrange operations and portray the cool which, so my children tell me, is the only word that covers every occasion. He is also a fine, correct keeper who barely knows the meaning of “dropped catch.” Somehow his concentration never wavers although it did at the height of the error-strewn Mohali match.

Kumar Sangakkara is more vivacious, a batsman of the finest class and just as accomplished with the gloves. He disdains the grand gesture of an Afridi, or the growling of Vettori but his word is law and his faith in his team absolute.

India's only triumph came 28 years ago, too remote to be relevant and Sri Lanka's success in 1996 will be a vague memory to most of its team today. Except for the smiling hero Muttiah Muralitharan who, like every conjuror, gestures with his left arm before performing his magic tricks with his right. He played at Lahore in 1996 and 15 years on he still has a bagful of magic.

Both teams will expect fireworks, a bumpy ride that leaves the result in doubt 10 overs from the end. It must be India but it will certainly not be victory at a canter.

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