Compaq Cup Final

This match and pre-game will be Live Webcast for free on www.TenSports.com on Monday, Sept 14 starting with pre-game at 1:30pm IST and then the match at 2:30pm IST.Named after the late Sri Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadasa, the R Premadasa stadium is one of the main venues in Sri Lankan cricket. This ground hosted its first One-day International in 1986 when New Zealand took on Sri Lanka. With a seating capacity of 35,000, the Premadasa stadium, formerly known as the Khettarama stadium, is the biggest cricket ground in Sri Lanka.

Pitch and Weather:

While the first two matches at the Premadasa were low scoring encounters, the third match saw Sri Lanka go past the 300 run mark while batting first. Going by its true nature, the pitch for the finals is again expected to favour the team batting first and hence the toss would be crucial for both sides.

Temperature: Min-26 C Max-29 C

Forecast: Scattered Thunderstorms predicted

Team Updates and Captain's form guide:

India: A quick rise to the top and an even quicker fall - that was India's story in the Compaq Cup tri-series when they faced an embarrassing defeat at the hands of Sri Lanka on Saturday. While the facile win against New Zealand in the first ODI was an ideal way to start the tri-series for the Dhoni led side, the Indian team's under-par performance in the Saturday match, despite having experienced players like Tendulkar and Dravid at the top, was not the right build-up to the finals. Even the bowling department, that came up with an impressive show against the Kiwis, lost its sting and looked out of sorts against the Lankans. A sensible approach and proper application is required from the Indians if they look to extract revenge against Sri Lanka in the finals.

Sri Lanka: The Lankans on the other hand made quick amends after their T20 losses to New Zealand by convincingly winning against the Kiwis and India in the ODIs. While Samaraweera was the hero against the Black-Caps, it was a triple treat against the Indians when Jayasuriya returned to form with his 98, followed by a quick-fire 91 by Kandamby and then a match-winning spell by Angelo Mathews which ripped the Indian batting line-up apart. Sri Lanka's only concern would be in the batting department where the likes of Dilshan, Sangakkara and Mahela are yet to fire. This however should not be much of a problem if the team from the Island Nation carry on in the same tempo that they displayed in the first two matches, by out-playing their opponents in all departments of the game.

MS Dhoni: The Indian skipper had a good outing with the bat during the first match, but failed to deliver during the game against the Lankans. When it comes to his wicket-keeping skills, Dhoni has looked good with the gloves, taking plunging catches and effecting some flashy stumpings.

Sangakkara: The Lankan captain has had an average outing with the bat during the Compaq Cup tri-series, scoring 18 against New Zealand and managing just 5 runs against India. His wicket-keeping and captaincy skills on the other hand have been top notch.Head to Head in finals: Since 1988, Sri Lanka and India have faced each other in 12 tournament finals. The Lankans have won 6 times while the Men in Blue have emerged victorious on 5 occasions. Only one game between these two sides yielded no result (The 2002 Champions Trophy finals was washed out twice and India & Sri Lanka were declared the joint winners)

Numbers Game:

10: The number of times teams batting first have scored 300 or more at the Premadasa.

361: The number of runs scored by Sachin Tendulkar during tournament finals against Sri Lanka. This includes 3 fifties and a century in 8 innings.

Sound Bytes: We didn't start well neither in bowling nor in batting. The only thing that went for us was the warm up session. Right from the toss nothing went for us. It is the worst day in office and hopefully we will have good day during the final: MS Dhoni, following India's loss to Sri Lanka. We played very well. It is great to see Sanath coming back to form. We had a good solid start and then the middle order did the finishing job but I feel we lost too many wickets at crucial times: Kumar Sangakkara, speaking about the team's performance.

Teams:

Sri Lanka (From): Tillakaratne Dilshan, Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara(w/c), Mahela Jayawardene, Thilan Samaraweera, Thilina Kandamby, Angelo Mathews, Nuwan Kulasekara, Muttiah Muralitharan, Ajantha Mendis, Lasith Malinga, Chamara Kapugedera, Malinga Bandara, Thilan Thushara, Dammika Prasad, Upul Tharanga

India (From): Dinesh Karthik, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni(w/c), Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Rudra Pratap Singh, Ashish Nehra, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, Amit Mishra, Abhishek Nayar, Virat Kohli