Can the Sri Lankans win? Yes... You still get the feeling that Australia’s batsmen and fielders are making the bowlers look better than they are.

So after a mundane, tedious and colourless World Cup we have the final pairing we wanted. Hopefully it means a great final awaits us, though big occasions tend to prefer anti-climaxes. High expectations and great encounters tend to walk with their backs facing each other.

Australia are the juggernaut; ruthless, clinical and uncaring and delivering a stinging slap in the face of those that wrote them off two weeks before the World Cup started. You disregard champions at peril and if they are wounded they are doubly dangerous for their greatest enemy, the complacence within, has been smothered and the competitive instinct aroused again. New Zealand did them a favour by vanquishing them in the Chappell-Hadlee series and I remember discussing in this column at the time that it was probably the best thing to happen to them-to know what they can do wrong before the World Cup began.

Juggernauts do not roll sporadically, they are not moody, whimsical objects, they are not fragile. When you play Australia, you do not merely play against a McGrath, a Ponting, a Hayden or a Gilchrist. You play against a mindset, a system. You have to counter a process and while, occasionally, a burst of individual passion can prevail, an excellent process invariably wins over a period of time. That is why Australia win; because they are proud and humble and players are willing to merge within a team. Don’t get carried away by what they tell the media and opposition players; underneath the sparks there is steel. Teams that disregard the process of winning are shown up to be shallow and pretentious.

It is no surprise therefore that the four most organised teams made it to the semi-final. Indeed, there were only four teams in this tournament, only four lead roles in this movie. The others, like daily-wage workers, watched and occasionally appeared in a frame. There are lessons there. When the ego rules, the team perishes, when the focus shifts, the target blurs.

Sri Lanka though, are different. Their board is strictly ad-hoc, presidential decrees arrive like the seasons do, different but predictable, but beneath the turmoil, lies a group of unassuming, friendly and tough players. There are superstars there and yet, I have never seen a Sri Lankan cricketer strut around and very studiedly draw attention to himself by ignoring those around him. It helps them learn faster, but more than anything else, I sense a feeling of calm about them. Jayasuriya and Muralitharan have been the flag bearers in recent times, creating carnage with bat and ball and doing so with no more than a shrug of the shoulder or a toothy smile that says more than a hundred swear words.

And Jayawardene has been magnificent as leader. There is a dignity about him, a Buddhist calmness. Rarely has he been provoked, rarely has he spoken a word in anger, indeed, rarely has he played a shot in anger. And he is flowering as a captain because he doesn’t have to look over his shoulder. Murali and Jayasuriya are great team men, Vaas is mellow, like good wine, not fizzy like pressurised gas. And Sangakkara, who would have been a contender for the captaincy, is a friend. You get the feeling that Sri Lanka comes first.

But can they win? Yes, if a few things go their way. You still get the feeling that Australia’s batsmen and fielders are making the bowlers look better than they are. I suspect Australia’s batsmen wouldn’t have minded playing their own bowlers too much and that is what Sri Lanka’s batsmen must do. That is their best chance; to put the runs on the board and see how Australia react to a run-chase in a final.

Having said that, Australia’s batting is in awesomely good health. If a team doesn’t knock two over in the first ten overs, they are in serious trouble and that is why I think Lasith Malinga has a big role to play. If he is off-key and starts leaking runs, Australia will start galloping away quickly. He is a young man whose bowling has bloomed in this tournament, indeed his selection was a master-stroke, but he is inexperienced and hasn’t played with the weight of expectation on him. He could crumble or he could become a giant. Much depends on the new ball for that will affect how the Aussies play Murali.

It is the last time Glenn McGrath will walk out in Australian colours and he has timed his exit brilliantly, leading what seemed a thin attack when the World Cup began. Last week they asked him why he succeeded and every young bowler must frame these words. “I knew myself and I knew my action.” There isn’t a delicate turn of phrase there, no stylish metaphor. It is a statement typical of the man; prosaic, straight to the point and yet, full of meaning. He will hope for a great send-off but a defeat will not diminish his stature as indeed, it won’t John Buchanan’s.

Buchanan was coach in a side that had the Waugh twins, Warne, Gilchrist, McGrath, Ponting and Hayden among other giants. How many times do you think his first class record was thrown at him in the dressing room? That is a tribute to him and to the Australian system. That is also why they start huge favourites to win a third consecutive World Cup.