Follow India v Sri Lanka with our over-by-over report

• Turn on our auto-refresh tool or hammer F5 for updates • Email rob.smyth@guardian.co.uk with your thoughts •  Discuss the game on our Cricket World Cup blog Team news Sri Lanka have made four changes, including the omission of Ajantha Mendis. There was a hint that might happen, because India play him pretty well, but that is still a major shock. They have also completely changed the balance of their side, with five bowlers rather than four, and two spinners rather than three. Chamara Kapugedera replaces the out-of-form Chamara Silva at No5, Thisara Perera is in for Angelo Mathews, Nuwan Kulasekera is in for Rangana Herath, and the offspinner Suraj Randiv – who only arrived a couple of days ago as a replacement – is in for Mendis. India make just one change, with Sreesanth replacing the injured Ashish Nehra. That’s a bit of a surprise, in that the pitch is expected to turn, but there should also be an unusual a India Sehwag, Tendulkar, Gambhir, Kohli, Yuvraj, Dhoni (c/wk), Raina, Harbhajan, Zaheer Khan, Patel, Sreesanth. Sri Lanka Tharanga, Dilshan, Sangakkara, Jayawardene, Samaraweera, Kapugedera, Perera, Kulasekera, Malinga, Randiv, Muralitharan. It’s time for the toss Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Kumar Sangakkara, two devilishly cool characters who are textbook examples of modern masculinity, both look pretty relaxed. They even manage to stay completely calm when the toss goes completely wrong. The coin landed as heads, but because of the noise nobody heard Kumar Sangakkara’s call and the match referee Jeff Crowe flicked the coin again. Sangakkara got it right second time, however. Sri Lanka have won the toss and will bat first . This is the end, rubber-wristed friend Today is the final day of Muttiah Muralitharan’s astonishing career, the last we’ll see of those wild eyes, that child-like smile, and that superhuman wrist. So much has been written about him, and Mike Selvey’s piece yesterday was a cracker , and there is very little to add. As well as being one of the greatest players of all time, he has been one of the nicest men ever to play the game. The dignity he has shown in the face of 15 years of whispers and moans has been truly staggering and would be beyond at least 99.94 per cent of the population, while his simple, nerdish love of cricket remains totally infectious. The phrase is used a lot, but with Murali it is fair to say that we will never see the like again. Preamble Good morning. So, the World Cup final. After 43 days, 20,781 runs, 721 wickets, one tie, umpteen near coronaries, an innings for the ages from Ireland’s purple-haired warrior and enough man love to make world peace a tantalising possibility if only the entire globe could embrace cricket, we’ve reached the end. This might be the first World Cup final in any sport to come after the Lord Mayor’s Show, but what a prospect it is. You could not ask for a more perfect final than this. India and Sri Lanka are the two best teams and the two co-hosts; they are so evenly matched that they even have the same strengths and weakness; and they have an all-time-great sniffing the mother of all fairytales: a 100th hundred for Sachin Tendulkar, or a matchwinning performance from Muttiah Muralitharan in his final match. Murali bowling to Sachin in a Super Over? Well, Dame Fortune, if you insist… Murali is fit to play – well, he’ll play – but there is no news on how Sri Lanka will replace Angelo Mathews, who is a deceptively big loss. They have had a pretty easy route to the final, whereas India have already won two finals just to reach the final. Which is better? That bit of history will be written by the victors. Cricket World Cup 2011 India cricket team Sri Lanka cricket team Cricket Over by over reports Rob Smyth guardian.co.uk

Posted by on April 2, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.