Just to follow up on this - Murali took a wicket with the last delivery he will bowl in competitive cricket on Sri Lankan soil. Not quite taking the last wicket in a World Cup Final - but sport really is better than real life sometimes.
Would be very surprised if Sri Lanka let this slip.
SL’s lower middle order need to right the ship. If they have a flaw, it’s their middle order batting. I still think they’ll win (this and the tournament) but if they don’t it will probably because they don’t score enough from Sangakarra down.
It is done - despite a wobble. Well done Sri Lanka.
I hope no one who works with a company on the sub-continent is expecting delivery of any work tomorrow - I suspect that a billion people are going to be glued to any TV that they can find.
New Zealand lose to Sri Lanka, and their miserable record in World Cup semifinals continues. Still they did better than expected to get so far.
Sri Lanka’s top three continue to score well - everyone talks of the Indian batting line up but the top of the Sri Lankan order have averages at this World cup of 66.71(Dilshan); 65.50(Tharanga) and 104.25 (Sangakkara) and are all in the top four batsmen by aggregate.
By comparison India’s first three are averaging 54.14 (Tendulkar), 57.00 (Sehwag) and 38.42 (Gambhir). Yuvraj Singh has a higher average though - 113.66 but he’s lower down the order.
Pakistan’s batsmen aren’t rating as highly by aggregate (although Asad Shafiq has the highest average 124 in only two innings with 1 not out so a bit dubious).
Anyway enough numbers on to India v Pakistan. I just hope the game can match the occasion.