LAHORE, Oct 13: With only pride at stake, Thursday's day-night clash between Pakistan and Sri Lanka offers an ideal dress rehearsal for both the teams ahead of Saturday's tri-nation final at the Qadhafi Stadium.

Zimbabwe were the third team in the competition, but the Southern African nation fielding a young and inexperienced side, had no chance of making to the final. They lost three of their matches and the fourth was mercifully abandoned without a ball being bowled, due to rains.

When the two sides met in the first league encounter at Karachi, Pakistan overwhelmed Sri Lanka by eight wickets in what turned out to be a mismatch. Earlier, Sri Lanka had hammered Pakistan by an equally emphatic margin of seven wickets in the Asia Cup in Colombo, last month.

Yet, past records do not count much specially in one-day matches. The most recent examples being England upsetting all odds against Australia in the Champions Trophy and lowly-rated West Indies surprizing the pundits and fansby lifting their first major title after a barren spell of 25 years.

On paper, both teams are well matched. If Pakistan possesses a better balanced attack the Islanders' batting has a more solid look. Sri Lanka are regarded a better fielding side, but in recent outings Marvan Atapattu's men have shown fallibility in this vital department particularly in ODIs.

Above all, the Sri Lankans will certainly be missing the services of spin magician Muttiah Muralitharan still recovering from a shoulder surgery. Another factor that favours Inzamamul Haq's team is that Sri Lankans have a very ordinary record on foreign soil except for Qadhafi Stadium.

The tourists have fond memories of this ground, the venue of their greatest triumph to date since their induction into the big league in early 80s. It was here that Sri Lanka, led by Arjuna Ranatunge, shocked world cricket beating favourites Australia in the final of 1996 World Cup.

But the outcome of Thursday's meeting could well be decided by the toss and weather which are expected to play vital role in the final reckoning. The captain winning the toss is sure to bat first taking into consideration the dew factor in this part of the country under the lights. And secondly the weather too could upset both camps' strategies. Rains have fallen here a few days back forcing domestic Quaid-i-Azam Trophy matches to be abandoned. If rains intervene then one of the team might find itself on the wrong side of the Duckworth / Lewis calculations.

Both the teams have no injury problems. Moin Khan, who missed the last two matches due to chest infection, has recovered and a certain starter if skipper Inzamam is to be believed.

If Moin plays then the stand-in wicket keeper Younis Khan will be in the eleven as a batsman, possibly at the expense of young Salman Butt or out of form Yasir Hameed. The 50-over a side match will start at 1.45pm.

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