Christopher Scott is a worried man. As chief groundsman of The Wanderers he has to ensure that the World Cup final is a 100-over game and worthy of being a fitting finale to the biggest cricket event ever held.

"I pray before every game that it does not rain. If it rains before the final I am doomed," he says.

But before the final, which is two weeks away, Scott is busy preparing the ground for Monday's Super Six game between India and Sri Lanka.

Though the month's first hailstorm rattled the advertising boards, the ground, he says, is ready for tomorrow's match even if it would rain an hour before the match. A thick blanket covering the wicket ensures that any moisture or sweating that may occur is absorbed by the blanket, leaving a dry, flat track for the batsman to plunder runs. The absence of wind should force the bowlers to dread bowling here.

Scott has warned against either side relying too much on spinners, because the wicket, he says, does not take much turn. He said, of course, this discounts the skills of Muthiah Muralitharan, who can turn the ball on even a glass surface. 
At the press conference, Muralitharan admitted that 'you just can't fox Sachin Tendulkar'. The wily off-spinner would find it easier convincing Darrel Hair about his action rather than be convinced that he has had the better of the little master; this despite the fact that they have not faced each other in the past three years and Murali has improved by frog leaps. 

"He reads the ball so early. The class in him comes out when he picks the ball as soon as it is delivered from the bowler's hand.

"It's always a challenge to bowl to Tendulkar and the other Indian batsmen. You just can't target any one batsman. They are all so good. My aim will be to keep a tight check on the Indians.

"If I can pick up 4-5 wickets and help Sri Lanka win, I will be very happy," Murali had said.

Chaminda Vaas, the leading wicket taker in tournament so far, said he would like to claim 300 one-day international wickets. He will realize the enormity of the job at hand when he paces in off his short run-up to bowl to a batsman with more runs than any other in the history of the World Cup, Sachin Tendulkar.

Tendulkar is the top scorer in the tournament with 474 runs, which includes a 152 against Namibia, 98 off 75 balls against Pakistan and three other half-centuries.

"The margin of error is very small when you bowl to top class batsmen. I am happy though that there is some swing here late in the evening," Vaas said.

If only that is not too late in the day for the Lankans with the kind of form Tendulkar is in. Vaas has dismissed Tendulkar seven times in the 40 matches he has played against India.

Sanath Jayasuriya's injury is a worrying factor too and according to a member of the team his broken thumb makes his chances of figuring in the final eleven even tougher than Kenya's chances of lifting the trophy at The Wanderers on March 23.

Jayasuriya, who suffered a bruised left forearm and a chipped bone on his left thumb when he was struck by Australia's Brett Lee had a limited nets session and conceded that it did not feel bad.

"The main problem is the thumb; I'm still feeling it a little bit. With my forearm, the pain is there but I can manage it. I have a 75-to-80 per cent chance of playing," he said.

With a broken thumb and a swollen arm, Jayasuriya, who is very determined on playing the match, is in danger of aggravating his injury.

The temporary loss of their captain would be a blow to Sri Lanka's chances. Jayasuriya has scored more than 8,900 runs in 294 one-day appearances, including 16 centuries and has averaged over 53 in the first round of the World Cup, with a 120 that saw New Zealand cave in against the Lankans in their opening game. If he fails to prove his fitness, his place could be taken in the team by hard-hitting opener Avishka Gunawardene or all-rounder Jehan Mubarak.

India will play Sri Lanka on the same wicket that saw Australia score 310 after Pakistan made the most of the juice in the wicket for the first hour and had the Aussies at 86 for 4.

The Australia - Pakistan game saw 538 runs being scored and Scott predicts more than 600 runs in the wicket for tomorrow's game. He foresees a minimum total of 280 on the ground, though he believes with the batting India possesses 300 should be a cakewalk. The bare live grass on the wicket has been rolled brown and besides pace and bounce there should be no lateral movement during the game.

On a hard and fast wicket, Scott advises that the captain who wins the toss should elect to field and chase.

"That way he can make the most of the first hour when the Wanderers wicket is kind to the fast bowlers. The Wanderers is very notorious in its first hour after that it settles down."

The wicket is on a slight angle because of the slope and could assist the bowlers who bowl round the wicket from the Golf Course End. With three left-arm seamers in Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and Chaminda Vaas, that could be a small but crucial factor.

Former South African coach Bob Woolmer said that anything you hit at the Wanderers travels for a six. Scott admits that the ground is small compared to most other grounds and suggests that the boundary is closer by 10 metres from the Corlett Drive End.
 
Which means that batsman should enjoy batting from that end rather than the Golf Course end which is 70 metres from the pitch. The straight boundaries are 75 metres on either side. A fast outfield should witness a bulk of the runs coming in boundaries rather than twos or threes.

This is Virender Sehwag's best chance of leaving his mark on this World Cup and knocking a few balls out of the park.

As Sourav Ganguly says, "Sehwag is a class act; just one innings away from regaining his form. The day he hits big time he is the one man who can win you a match single-handedly."