India to rest Zaheer and 'Bhajji' for final

COLOMBO: Both Sri Lanka and India will make changes in their line-ups for the fifth and final One-Daye International (ODI) at the R Premadasa Stadium here on Friday. India have already won the series 3-1 and the final match will be a dead rubber, but for the Sri Lankans their pride is at stake after their poor showing in the series. 

India will rest left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan, who had a good series, and he is replaced by RP Singh, who has not played any cricket at all despite being on tour from the start. The Indians were also contemplating to bring in left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojah resting off-spinner Harbhajan Singh while MS Dhoni will play as a specialist batsman while Parthiv Patel will keep wickets, something that has been done when the duo teamed up for the IPL Twenty-20 matches for Madras Super Kings. Tamil Nadu batsman Subramaniam Badrinath will make way for Patel.

The Sri Lankans, meanwhile, have lost patience with middle-order batsman Tillekeratne Dilshan and he will be replaced by Jehan Mubarak. Moving away from the six batsmen five bowlers combination, the Sri Lankans will settle for a seven batsmen four bowlers line- up and will rest veterans Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan.

Dilhara Fernando will come in for Vaas while batsman Mahela Udawatte will be the additional batsman.

“Our pride is at stake. I don’t think we played consistent cricket and this gives us an opportunity to finish off the series with a win,” Sri Lanka’s captain Mahela Jayawardene said.

Sri Lanka won the first ODI in Dambulla by eight wickets while India squared the series at the same venue two days later by winning the second ODI by three wickets. They won the third and fourth ODIs here by 33 and 46 runs respectively to record their first ever bilateral series win on the Sri Lankan soil. 

Teams (from):
 
Sri Lanka: Mahela Jayawardene (Captain), Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara, Chamara Kapugedara, Chamara Silva, Tillekeratne Dilshan, Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Kulasekara, Thilan Tushara Mirando, Ajantha Mendis, Muttiah Muralitharan, Dilhara Fernando, Malinda Warnapura, Jehan Mubarak and Mahela Udawatte. 

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Subramaniam Badrinath, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Parthiv Patel, Irfan Pathan, Praveen Kumar, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Rudra Pratap Singh, Munaf Patel and Pragyan Ojha.

Umpires: Billy Doctrove (WI) and T.H. Wijewardene (SL)

Third Umpire: Gamini Silva (SL)

Match Referee: Chris Broad (Eng)