November 6, 2003	Thursday	Ramazan 10, 1424

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LAHORE, Nov 5: Unbeaten Sri Lanka will take on India in the final of the Under-19 Asia Cup at Qadhafi Stadium on Thursday. Sri Lanka defeated India by four wickets, hosts Pakistan by 14 runs and Bangladesh by eight wickets in the league encounters.

India, after being beaten by Sri Lanka in the opener, bounced back to defeat Pakistan by 10 runs and trounced Bangladesh by 189 runs.

Sri Lanka owe their success to opener Harsh Vithana  who had scored half-century in all the three matches and all-round performance by skipper Farvaiz Maharoof.

Vithana scored an unbeaten 72 against India, 50 and 51 against Bangladesh and Pakistan to anchor his team’s innings.

Maharoof too played his part in the team’s success. Four for 21 against India and a sparkling (57) against Pakistan have been his main contributions towards succees.

Indian camp is troubled by top order failures. Not a single Indian batsman has scored a half-century so far in the competition. But India have fine bowling spearheaded by medium pacer Irfan Pathan, V.R Singh and Sunny Singh and two leg-spinners Riyush Chawla and Avinash Yadav.

“Yes, our batsmen could not excel so far, but you will see their potential in the final”, Indian coach  Robin  Singh  said after Wednesday’s net session.

Teams:

SRI LANKA (from): Damindu Kulartne, Harsh Vithana, Kaushal Silva, Gihan de Silva (wicket-keeper), Farviz Maharoof (captain), Ganganath Ratnayake, Kosala Kulasekara, Sandan Dias, Sudeera Zoysa, Manoj Chanka, Angeloa Mattews, Tharaka Kottehewa, Uppal Tharappa, Suraj Mohammed.

INDIA: Shivkant Shukla, Sahil Kukreja, Robin Utappa, Sunny Singh, A.T. Rayudu (captain), Suresh Raina, Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Irfan Pathan, Piyush Chawla, Avinash Yadav, V.R. Singh, Sunny Singh, Rakesh Solanki, Raiphi Gothez.