16 October 2004	Saturday	01 Ramazan 1425

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LAHORE, Oct 15: Sri Lankan skipper Marvan Atapattu is confident of winning the three-nation final on Saturday despite losing back-to-back league matches to Pakistan.

"We have been doing well in the past and have come across several finals and done well. So we will put up a good show on Saturday," Atapattu said in pre-final press conference on Friday.

Sri Lanka had lost the first league match at Karachi by an impressive margin of eight wickets and at Lahore by six wickets and qualified for the final due to their lone victory over third team of Zimbabwe.

Pakistan won all four matches. Asked if he had special planning for the final he said nothing was special. "We have not done much wrong so far in the league matches and it is Pakistan which played better," he said.

"We have to avoid mistakes and give a tough time to Pakistan," Atapattu said. About any changes in the team, the skipper said, "We have not made any decision about it but there will not be drastic changes," he hinted.

To a question he said that Farveez Maharoof was the only unfit player at the moment. "Farveez has a slight ankle injury which is not very serious and hopefully he will recover by tomorrow," he said.

Asked if he had agreed to Inzamamul Haq's proposal to start the final earlier to avoid dew's problems in the second session, he said, "We will begin according to the time which has been notified earlier."

Asked then if he considered toss would play a vital role he said, "No, in fact we did not lose Thursday's game due to toss but we dropped some catches and paid the penalty."

About the absence of Muttiah Muralitharan, the skipper said that it was a great loss to Sri Lanka. "He is really a world class bowler who can bowl effectively on any kind of pitch and we are missing him but we have won matches without him and we will put up a good show to come out with fine performance," he vowed.

Asked what differences he noted in the Pakistan team which staged a comeback against his side after losing in Asia Cup, he said that Pakistan played badly there and his side played badly, but in periods, here and that made difference.

Asked what kind of advantage he saw if paceman Shoaib Akhtar was unfit to play in the final, he said, "Shoaib is a world class bowler and there is no doubt about it and that was one of his bad days he could bowl only four overs on Thursday and about his presence or not it is better you ask Inzamam," he said.

Sri Lankan coach John Dyson said that his team would fight for win and it would be a good final. Pakistan skipper Inzamamul Haq admitted that although his side had never won any tournament for a long time yet he considered it was the better time to come on the winning track. "We are a well balanced side and hoping to win the much wanted title but for it we have to improve our fielding which has been our grey area," he said.