Cricket World Cup Wrapup - Semifinals

New Zealand put up more of a fight against Sri Lanka than the first time they met, but they still came up short losing 220-217 by 5 wickets with 13 balls remaining sending Sri Lanka on through to the finals for the second straight World Cup and third time overall. In their previous meeting back on the 18th of March, New Zealand didn't have a single batter score more than 33 runs as they were held to 153 for the match. This time was different though as the Kiwis had 3 players eclipse that mark led by Scott Styris's 57 runs off 77 balls. It wouldn't be enough though as Sri Lanka got 73 runs off 93 balls from Tillakaratne Dilshan and 54 runs off 79 balls from captain Kumar Sangakkara who was named the man of the match. Sri Lanka has lost just one match, 277-266 to Pakistan back on the 26th of February, as they will now try and win their first World Cup Championship.

Photo Courtesy: zimbio.com

India defeated Pakistan 260-231 as they too advanced to the World Cup Finals for the 3rd time. India won the Cup back in 1983 and lost to Australia in the finals back in 2003. Sachin Tendulkar led the way for India tallying 85 runs off 115 balls en route to being named the man of the match. All 5 Indian bowlers took 2 wickets as Pakistan, the top seed from Group A, missed a chance to make the finals for the first time since 1999. Wahab Riaz took 5 wickets in his 10 overs of bowling for Pakistan, but it wasn't enough as they lost for just the second time in this World Cup.

 Photo Courtesy: zimbio.com

So the final is set with co-hosts Sri Lanka and India face off against one another, each in search of their second championship. Sri Lanka's offense is led by Dilshan (467 runs), Sangakkara (417 runs) and Upul Tharanga (393 runs) while India has been carried by Tendulkar (464 runs), Virender Sehwag (380 runs) and Yuvraj Singh (341 runs). India's Zaheer Khan has taken the second most wickets in the tournament (19) behind only Pakistan's Shahid Afridi (21). Muttiah Muralitharan leads Sri Lanka having taken 15 wickets. The two teams will face off on Saturday to determine the 10th World Cup Champion.