by Ravi Nagahawatte
Hosts Sri Lanka will go all out to prove their prowess in limited over cricket when they take on West Indies in the final of the L.G.Abans Tri Nation Cricket Tournament in a day night match at the R.Premadasa Stadium today.

Sri Lanka’s dazzling performance against West Indies in the concluded test series might all be forgotten if the visiting team pulls off an unexpected win tonight.

But given the performances in the Tri Nation Tournament, which also featured Zimbabwe, nothing stands in the way of Sri Lanka being declared hot favourites.

Sri Lanka’s bowling today has grown in strength with pace bowler Chaminda Vaas establishing himself as second to none.

At present the left arm seamer holds the World Record as the highest wicket taker following a breath taking feat with the ball which came against Zimbabwe.

Sri Lanka have posted the highest total in the tournament which was 272 for 7 against Zimbabwe. The team also produced a centurion in Mahela Jayawardna who slammed an unbeaten 106 against West Indies.

But todays opponents unlike Zimbabwe have all the makings to make the game an interesting tussle.

The ‘Windies’ despite losing two key matches have beaten the host team once in the tournament.

But what holds in good stead for them is the return to form of Chris Gayle who led the team’s charge with a timely 85 in their last fixture against Zimbabwe.

The team’s hopes will revolve around skipper C.Hooper, Marlon Samuel, Ridley Jacobs, Darryl Brown, Pedro Collins and C.Collymore.

The teams-

Sri Lanka from S.Jayasuriya (Captain), M. Atapattu, M.Jayawardana, C.Vaas, M.Muralitharan, K.Sangakkara, U.Chandana, A.Gunawardana, R.Arnold, K.Dharmasena, S.Perera, N.Zoysa, C.Silva

West Indies from C.Hooper (Captain), P.Collins, C.Stuart, N.Mc Garell, L.Garrick, R.Powell, D.Brown, M.Black, R.Jacobs, D.Ganga, C.Gayle, R.Sarwan .