India elect to bat in tri-series final

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat against Sri Lanka in the final of the tri-series at the R Premadasa Stadium, in Colombo, on Monday.

India, who lost to Sri Lanka by 139 runs on Saturday in the last group match, made one change bringing in youngster Virat Kohli in place of Dinesh Karthik.

Hosts Sri Lanka, meanwhile, continued to rest Muttiah Muralitharan and went in with the same team that played in the last match against India.

Interestingly, India have not beaten Sri Lanka in the last seven finals played between the two sides with Sri Lanka winning five, while two were rained out. The last tournament final played between the two teams was the Asia Cup final in Karachi last year, which Sri Lanka had won by 100 runs.

Teams:

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Rudra Pratap Singh, Ashish Nehra, Ishant Sharma 

Sri Lanka: Kumar Sangakkara (captain), Sanath Jayasuriya, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardene, Chamara Kapugedera, Thilina Kandamby, Angelo Mathews, Nuwan Kulasekara, Thilan Thushara, Lasith Malinga, Ajantha Mendis