Ten days ago, Sri Lanka v India looked as much of a mismatch as Muhammad Ali in his prime against the British fighter Brian London. London ended that fight looking like he'd swallowed ten golf balls. India's Coca-Cola Cup campaign was in similarly appalling shape after the opening three matches, but then this is a team that plays in mysterious ways. One minute they resembled the hapless London on the ropes, the next they had metamorphosed into Ali, stinging like a bee in the heat of summer.

And for a change, this Kafkaesque transformation came about without the services of Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. The bowlers started the revival, dismissing Sri Lanka cheaply in the fourth game before VVS Laxman's elegant innings saw them home. Thereafter, two of the pretenders to the allrounder throne, Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag, came into their own. Sehwag's innings against New Zealand resembled a cricketing adaptation of the Harmonious Blacksmith.

Sourav Ganguly's patchy form with the bat has yet to convince the snipers but his medium-pace bowling has played a crucial role in the Indian revival. The new-ball pairing of Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra have battled with injury to contribute in full measure to the turnaround. Yuvraj too has done his bit with the ball, giving his captain the luxury of being able to change things around in a crisis.

Sri Lanka may have come top at the qualifying stage but they have problems aplenty. They were outplayed by India in the last two outings and the batting (strong on paper, less reassuring on turf) inspires as much confidence as a banana skin on an ice patch. All the batsmen have made runs at some stage in the competition but there has been no co-operative effort. Too often, they have had to rely on the likes of Suresh Perera and Kumar Dharmasena for runs.

The pitch at the Premadasa Stadium will have a huge bearing on the outcome. India played their best cricket at the SSC ground where the ball came on to the bat. The surface at the Premadasa is comatose by comparison and the strokemakers won't find it to their liking. As the league matches showed, the team batting first can feel quietly confident about defending a total of around 220.

Sri Lanka are more likely to benefit from the switch back to the Premadasa. Not that the Indians will worry too much. After three convincing wins on the trot, Ganguly's men will go into this game with the feelgood factor coursing through their veins.

Dileep Premachandran is assistant editor of Wisden Online in India.

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