Will Dhoni's tricks finally pay off?

The absence of Sri Lankan spin legend Muttiah Muralitharan through a groin injury should cheer up Mahendra Singh Dhoni's Indians a little as they hope for a miracle to stay alive in the competition.


India will have to beat Sri Lanka by a huge margin and then hope for Australia to thrash West Indies later in the day.

Murali will be missed since the St Lucia wicket is expected to be low and slow, but Lanka skipper Kumar Sangakkara is confident of throwing India out of the competition.

"I don't care what India are thinking. I am just concerned about my team. It's bad luck that we don't have Murali but I am quite confident of beating India even without him. We have ample strength in batting and bowling. Our fielding has been good too," said Sangakkara.

In short, India can expect no favours from the neighbours today and captain Dhoni is experiencing his toughest time at the helm. Pundits reckon his troubles are self-inflicted. His decision to put Australia into bat last Friday even caused Aussie skipper Michael Clarke to express his surprise in his post match chat. The West Indies were asked to bat first too - on Sunday. "I wanted my bowlers to exploit the dampness in the track," was Dhoni's explanation for his toss decisions. But the fact is that he had Harbhajan Singh as one of his opening bowlers.
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He countered that argument by saying that Harbhajan's task was to put pressure on the batsmen to succumb to the pacers.

So far, his tricks have not worked but if his team does the incredible today, all his so-called cricketing sins in this tournament will be forgiven.

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