The best two teams have reached the final.
The tournament has had some good cricket but it hasn't been a great competition. No crowd atmosphere up until the last week, very few close games, two of the big nations failing to qualify for super 8's and of course the small matter of a murder mean that this tournament wasn't pure carnival cricket.
Lets hope the final is a cracker.
Strangely two of the most entertaining games in this World Cup both involved one of the least impressive teams: England! Their game against Sri Lanka was a cracker, going down to the last ball, and the game against West Indies was also a nail-biter, despite the fact it was a dead rubber by that stage of the competition!
As for Sri Lanka having the depth of bowling and batting to be able to challenge Australia in the final, I agree their bowling attack is at least as good as Australia's, but I still don't think their batting is strong as the Aussies, even after a good performance from their batsmen in the semi. But if they can put Australia in to bat first, and blast a few quick wickets out with Malinga and Vaas, then it'll be game on!
This World Cup has indeed been a fizzer. It's gone on for far too long, no close games, barely any atmosphere and 2 of the supposedly better cricket countries (Pakistan and India) missed out on the Super 8's.
They've virtually played 1 game a day but it's too long and too long a gap between games - the Aussies had a 8 or 9 day gap between games.. It just doesn't feel like any tension within the tournament can build up.. also hard to build up any momentum.
And no close games.. no excitement ..little competition. Yes, I love the Aussies winning but it's always so much more sweet (and fun) to win when there has been a great contest.
The World Cup in South Africa was a brilliant tournament - it had all the ingredients to make up a carnival of cricket. ..basically everything that is missing in this one.
Having said all that.. now that it's the final, I just want to win as quickly and ruthlessly as possible - it's the final, so no time for close games!
Just out of interest.. anyone going for the Aussies?
To say the truth Australia deserve the world cup just for making the other teams look like a poor c-class county teams when playing against them. I am supporting Srilanka so that the world cup has atleast one decent match.
I loved the 99 world cup when Aussie's lost some matches in beginning and were in a must win position for 7 consecutive games and suddenly peaked to a higher level. Remember those matches with south Africa when gibbs dropped catch when aussies came from a losing position with 2 100's from waugh and bevan. And that amazing semi-final tie with a run-out of Donald.
Or take the 1992 world cup when pakistan who would have been out of the world cup if not for a rain interrupted draw rallied under imrhan khan and won the cup.
Or the 1983 world cup when West - indies were the team to win and it was only a question of who would be 2nd. No one gave India anychance to reach even semis but teh Indians beat the West indies both in league and the finals for a first non-west indies world cup.
Or the 1996 world cup when sri-lankans invented the concept of pinch-hitting in the first 15 overs instead of the consolidation and going after the bowling in last 10 overs. Jayasuriya 's demolishing of all the teams with fastest 50, 100 records being broken all round.
Those games had spirit and zeal in them with lots of anticipation and fun for cricket followers. This world cup is unrivalled so far in being the dullest one so far the only highlights so far being Bangladesh knocking out India and Ireland knocking out pakistan in a single day.
Update live at http://cricketworldcup.indya.com/scores/html/live/slau2804.html
Australia: 281/4 (38.0) R/R: 7.39
Sri Lanka: 206/7 (33.0) R/R: 6.24
Play in Progress
Sri Lanka need 63 runs in 18 balls with 3 wickets in hand at 21 RPO
Once again the star:: Adam Gilchrist 149 off 104 balls
Sri bowlers ripped apart..
Chaminda Vaas 8 0 54 0 2 1 6.75
Lasith Malinga 8 1 49 2 0 0 6.12
Dilhara Fernando 8 0 74 1 1 4 9.25
M Muralitharan 7 0 44 0 0 2 6.29