India keen to seal final berth against Sri Lanka

Edgbaston, July 05: A buoyant India will look to carry on with their stupendous form in the NatWest triseries and assure themselves of a final berth by denying the Sri Lankans a victory yet again on Saturday.

Having lost all their three matches in the tri-series so far, Sri Lanka face the daunting task of upstaging India who, in contrast, are yet to lose a match in the series.

India's third match against England yesterday, was abandoned due to rains but they were in a winnable situation having piled up 285 for four in 50 overs.

India have 10 points from three games, the same as England but the latter have played an extra game.

The three defeats in a row have pushed the Lankans to the wall, and they must now win their remaining three league matches if they are to entertain any hope of making it to the final at Lord's on July 13.

Knowing very well that any slip up now could knock them out of reckoning for the final, Sri Lanka are expected to go all out against India tomorrow.

Unfortunately for them, they are up against a new-look Indian team which has shown tremendous character even in pressure situations.

Sachin Tendulkar joined the list of batsmen in form as he struck an enthralling 108-ball 105 to steer the team out of trouble which was once reduced to 52 for three during the Riverside day-night match on Thursday. 

The flourish in the end was again provided by Yuvraj Singh who smashed 40 off just 19 balls and now has scores of 64, 31 and 40 in his three knocks in the tournament.

India are also bowling well and it must be a source of worry for Sri Lanka who do not have a similar depth in batting.

They still have some capable batsmen in Marvan Atapattu and Mahela Jaywardene though captain Sanath Jayasuriya, as he showed in his 87-ball 112 against England at Headingley on Tuesday, is also getting his act together.

Sri Lanka though are missing the presence of their match-winning bowler, Muttiah Muralitharan, who has gone back home for medical attention to his injured shoulder.

Teams (from):

India: Sourav Ganguly (capt), Virender Sehwag, Dinesh Mongia, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh.

Sri Lanka: Sanath Jayasuriya (capt), Romesh Kaluwitharana, Marvan Atapattu, Mahela Jayawardene, Russel Arnold, Buddhika Fernando, Dilhara Fernando, Upul Chandana, Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Zoysa, Naveed Nawaz and Pramodya Wickramasinghe.

Umpires: Steve Bucknor (West Indies) and Neil Mallender (England )