It’s been a long event for most, very long for some, thanks to the 30 year-tradition of this tournament — playing around for a month across various cities before meeting in the best-of-three finals. But within this decaying concept of cricket scheduling, lies the birth of a new cricket team.For a few bubbling careers, there’s nothing more potent than success in the finals, beating Australia. The confidence in the team has grown from their success in the previous game and from Australia’s defeat last night. It’s been a long series, jumping from one match to the other, one controversy to the other, but hopefully, a packed Sydney Cricket Ground will subdue the little chit-chat that’s bound to be a part of this three-match final. Matthew Hayden, rested, dropped or merely disciplined against Sri Lanka, is set to be back in the XI as the Australian batting line-up searches for the form that piled up 317 against India in their previous meeting here — a match that India lost by 18 runs despite a big fightback. Memories of the pitch will indicate that the skipper winning the toss wouldn’t hesitate to bat first. The toss will be crucial — a chase under lights could be tricky. The Indian seam department has been fantastic throughout, but the slowdown of the wicket as the game progresses will weigh on the mind of Mahendra Singh Dhoni who has just one specialist spinner in Harbhajan Singh (Piyush Chawla is still waiting for his big chance). It’s difficult to read Dhoni’s now-famous instincts as far as of choice of bowling combination goes — 4-1 or 3-2, or maybe just four bowlers after having a final look at the wicket — but the role of part-timers will be specifically screened. Not that he is sure himself. “Actually it’s quite confusing whether to play five or four bowlers; to go into the game with 3-2 or 4-1 or four plus part-timers,” said Dhoni.Virender Sehwag is one good option, but his contribution with the bat has been minimal and has forced a complete revamp in the batting order. There’s Sachin Tendulkar, and then there are Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, Irfan Pathan and Praveen Kumar. At the onset, it seemed that this batting card is top-heavy with just too many guys opening the innings. But clearly it’s a different story now as the tournament ends.Out of the five possible contenders to partner Tendulkar, Gambhir has been among the runs at number 3, Uthappa has made number 7 his own, Pathan isn’t quite fitting the bill, while Praveen isn’t up to the mark yet, given his inability to play the short-stuff. Ironically, India’s problems in the opening slot continue, though the batting, overall, is sturdier.Brett Lee running into them has highlighted the problems. Tomorrow, again, Tendulkar’s partner will be picked with fingers crossed. Records say that there haven’t been too many finals that have gone into the third match, and going one-up is a definite advantage to a side. Australia spectacularly lost last time to England, who had peaked towards the end. India have shown a similar progress graph here.But whichever way the final goes, Dhoni knows his side has done enough to silence the doubters. “Irrespective of what we do in the finals, the youngsters have shaped up well in the last eight ODIs. There were many doubting this one-day side. Now they have to analyse the capability of these youngsters, and what are the things we are trying to do on the field, the different patterns (we are adapting),” Dhoni said.
