Stats Preview: World Cup Final – India vs Sri Lanka

By Dileep V

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After six weeks and 48 matches of non-stop cricket, we finally come to the grand finale of the tournament. Host India take on Sri Lanka on Saturday at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.  India ousted Pakistan in the semi-finals at Mohali by 29 runs, while Sri Lanka were the first to make to the finals trashing New Zealand by five wickets

Head to head

India and Sri Lanka have met each other 128 times with India leading with 67 wins to Sri Lanka’s 50. India have an impressive record at home, winning 28 of the 42 matches played. In World Cups, though, Sri Lanka have an upper hand with 4-2 win-loss record. India have disappointing memories of their last World Cup clash against Sri Lanka when the Lions ousted the men in blue from the 2007 edition.

In tournament finals, Sri Lanka marginally lead with eight wins to India’s seven.  Mahendra Singh Dhoni has a 15-12 win-loss record against Sri Lanka.

Top order key for both teams

Five of the top six run-getters contesting in this match confirm the batting quality of the two sides. Tillakaratne Dilshan is the top run getter in the tournament with 467 runs followed by Sachin Tendulkar on 464 and Kumar Sangakkara 417. Upul Tharanga and Virender Sehwag complete the list with 393 and 380 runs respectively. Tendulkar, Dilshan and Tharanga have two hundreds each, the most in this tournament. Mahela Jayawardene has one hundred, but he has hardly done anything else in this edition of the World Cup.

Yuvraj Singh has amassed 341 runs in this World Cup. Gautam Gambhir’s 296 runs gives stability to the top order.

The area of concern for both teams is the lower middle order. Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has only 150 runs to his name, while Yusuf Pathan has failed at No.7. Likewise Thilan Samaraweera and Chamara Silva haven’t set the World Cup on fire and have less than 100 runs to their tally.

Zaheer second in the bowling chart

Zaheer Khan is this World Cups second highest leading wicket taker with 19 wickets and the left-arm paceman has got India breakthroughs at the right time. Muttiah Muralitharan has 15 wickets having bowled in one game lesser than Zaheer.

Lasith Malinga and Munaf Patel both have 11 each. Malinga has been an expert in the batting powerplay hardly giving away anything and taking wickets regularly.

Part-timers have played their part as well. Yuvraj is India’s second highest wicket taker with 13 wickets, while Dilshan has chipped in with seven wickets.

Harbhajan Singh has been a disappointment taking eight wickets at 42.50 and a strike rate of almost 60.

In tournament finals

India has contested in 59 tournament finals, including two in the World Cups. They have won 22 and lost 32 of them. Sri Lanka has a better success rate winning 25 of the 46 contested.

Tendulkar and Dilshan are the only two batsmen who have score centuries in tournament finals. In fact India has won all the trophies/finals in which Tendulkar has scored a hundred.

Players in tournament finals

The Wankhede factor

Out of the 17 matches staged at the Wankhede Stadium,  10 have been won by team batting first and seven while chasing. India has an 8-6 win-loss record at his venue, while Sri Lanka have two wins and losses each. The two teams have played two games at this venue, with one win apiece.

The average score on this ground is 241, batting first it is 245 and 236 when batting second. For India the average score is 237, while for Sri Lanka it’s 278. In World Cups the ground has hosted five matches and the average score is 253.

Tendulkar has 437 runs on this ground, including a hundred and three fifties. Sangakkara has played only one match here, scoring 111, and Jayawardene has a fifty in the lone match he played against New Zealand earlier in the tournament. The last time India played in a tournament final on this ground was the Titan Cup final in 1996 against South Africa. Aided by captain Tendulkar’s 67, India comfortably won the trophy.

Harbhajan Singh has a decent record at his home ground scalping eight wickets at an average of 21, while Muralitharan has six wickets in three matches at 17.16.

(Dileep.V is a Scouser fan, Sports freak, Movie buff, Laggard Quizzer and dreams of setting foot on Anfield one day)