India hold edge in Nidahas Trophy final: Mahela Jayawardene

NEW DELHI: Former Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene believes that Rohit Sharma’s second-string Indian team are favourites for today’s Nidahas Trophy final in Colombo because of their pace attack, but that Bangladesh have the advantage of being able to “attack India without the pressure of expectation”.
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India was the first team to reach the final after winning three matches in a row, and Bangladesh joined them after eliminating hosts Sri Lanka in a pulsating and controversial final league match on Friday.
“Bangladesh have nothing to lose and everything to gain against India. They can enjoy being the underdogs after two round-robin stage defeats and attack India without the pressure of expectation.
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India may be missing some of their top senior players, but they have already shown that they have great depth of talent right now in all departments,” wrote Jayawardene, who played 448 ODIs, 149 ODIs and 55 T20Is.
“They have a clear advantage in terms of their pace bowling against Bangladesh, but in terms of batting things are more evenly balanced. Bangladesh have the experience in their top order to do some damage. At the end of the day, as is so often the case with T20 cricket, it will probably come down to who handles the pressure the best and is able to best navigate themselves through the key moments in the game.”
Friday’s match between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh was marred by a controversial on-field umpire’s call which left Bangladesh captain Shakib al Hasan furious and threatening to call his players off the field. Shakib was reprimanded for his gesture during the penultimate over of the game, as he appeared to be signalling to his batsmen to come off the field after Mustafizur Rahman was run out of a delivery which was first ruled as a no-ball for being the second bouncer of the over, before the square leg umpire changed his decision.
The change of call also prompted a few substitutes from the Bangladesh dugout, including substitute Nurul Hasan, to make their way to the middle and confront Sri Lanka captain Thisara Perera. Nurul's fine was imposed for his finger-waging act at Perera, before the situation was brought under control and play resumed. Shakib and Nurul have been fined 25 percent of their match fees and also handed one demerit point each for breaching Level 1 of the ICC Code of Conduct in the fracas that marred their win.
According to Jayawardene, the match officials and the ICC could have defused the situation faster and not allowed such unruly scenes to unfold.
“The final-over fracas should certainly have been handled better. From a neutral perspective, it was definitely a no-ball and the umpires made a mistake. They then made matters worse by not taking charge of the situation and diffusing the tension with effective communication,” he wrote. “Having said that, the reactions of the players, including the threats by Bangladesh to leave the field of play, are not the kind of thing you want young cricket fans to see. Emotions were understandably running high, but players have a larger responsibility to the game.”
Writing for TOI before the Nidahas Trophy, Jayawardene - who retired from T20Is after Sri Lanka beat India in the final of the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 - had picked Sri Lanka as the team to beat. However, after winning their first match against India, the hosts lost to Bangladesh twice and then to India.
The elimination of hosts Sri Lanka from this Nidahas Trophy has obviously caused a lot of local disappointment. However, sadly, the truth is that Sri Lanka don’t deserve to be in the final after three straight defeats. India have been extremely impressive after their wobbly start and Bangladesh have battled really hard and shown their experience at critical times,” wrote Jayawardene.