Sri Lanka to meet Pakistan in emotional final

Less than four months after they were cowering on the floor of a bus in Lahore, under attack from terrorists, Sri Lanka's cricketers will take on Pakistan in the ICC World Twenty20 2009 final at Lord's on Sunday.

And after its emphatic 57-run win over West Indies in Friday's semifinal at The Oval, Sri Lanka's captain Kumar Sangakkara reflected on what reaching the final means to his team while providing an eloquent account of how the attack affected it.

"It's fitting reward for our courage and the way we have played in this tournament," Sangakkara said. "I think what Lahore really brought home to us was that we are the same as everyone else. It can happen to anyone and it happened to us."

Sri Lanka was due to play a Test match against Pakistan on March 3, when the bus taking the team to the stadium in Lahore was ambushed by terrorists.

Six policemen and a driver were killed during the attack and Sangakkara was one of a number of Sri Lanka players injured.

"Sometimes it is nice to be reminded of your mortality when things like the press can build you up to be a bit more than that in this sporting culture," he said.

"I think it's great the way the guys have prepared mentally and the way they've gone out, showed no fear and just focused on cricket."

For Pakistan too, Sunday's final will be an emotionally charged affair.

After the Lahore attacks, it is unable to play home games indefinitely and while Sri Lanka's progress to the final was serene, winning six games out of six, Pakistan faced elimination after defeats to England and Sri Lanka.

After losing its opening game in the tournament to England, captain Younis Khan rejected the idea that going out would be a disaster for Pakistan, saying Twenty20 was "fun cricket."

Yet in the aftermath of Thursday's semifinal win over favorites South Africa at Trent Bridge, he revised his opinion.

"Actually this World Cup is everything for us," Khan said. "We're suffering from everything at the moment, there is a lot of fighting (in Pakistan) so I think this is everything for me and my team."

On form Sri Lanka must be considered a slight favorite. Tillakaratne Dilshan has arguably been the star of the tournament, his unbeaten 96 in the semifinal merely the latest in a series of brilliantly inventive innings that have confounded fielding captains, particularly with his trademark "scoop" over the wicketkeeper's head.

And if Dilshan fails, Pakistan would have to contend with Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardena and Sanath Jayasuriya, who at 39, can still flay any bowler.

If Sri Lanka has a weakness it is the length of its tail, designed to accommodate the most potent bowling attack in Twenty20 cricket.

The talents of Lasith Malinga and Muttiah Murlidaran are long established, but spinner Ajantha Mendis has been one of the tournament's revelations.

"I think he has already won enough games for us to be called a great spinner, in Twenty20 cricket and in all forms of cricket," Sangakkara said. "He has been an absolute charm for us."

Then there is Angelo Mathews, the hitherto unheralded right-armer who took three wickets for a single run in the first over of the West Indian innings on Friday.

In the shortest form of the game, an individual can turn a game on its head and Pakistan can boast its own stable of match winners.

Umur Gul, who took the first ever five-wicket haul in a Twenty20 international when Pakistan beat New Zealand in the Super 8s, and Shahid Afridi, whose form with the ball was never in doubt, but whose 51 in the semifinal ended a dismal run with the bat, spring to mind.

"I just hope everyone watching will enjoy it," Sangakkara said, when asked about the final.