London, June 20: A glorious chapter in the history of cricket would be scripted as a new world Twenty20 champion will be crowned at Lord's, the home of cricket, on Sunday. With Sri Lanka and Pakistan, besieged by violence back home and competing for the trophy, it will only be fitting that the winner would have come back from the brink to the top of the cricketing world.

The Lankans seem to have overcome the trauma after being targeted by terrorists during their recent tour to Pakistan. They got away with a brutal attempt on their lives as militants drilled bullets into their team bus in Lahore. It surely would be a match laden with emotion, especially for captain Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Ajantha Mendis, who had suffered injuries during the attack.

Before the start of the tournament, Sangakkara had spoken about the need to bring smiles on the faces of people back home with a good show at the World Cup. Having reached the title round, his team has fulfilled the promise but the Islanders will like to go one better and lay their hands on the Cup to lift an entire nation.

"We’ve experienced first-hand terrorism in Lahore and I’ve grown up with a bloody war for 26 years in Sri Lanka that has come to an end. It presents a great opportunity for our country to move forward as one nation and one people. Cricket has been that one unifying force over the years. It’s been the passion of the entire country — cricket transcends religion, race and politics. I think that’s the greatest thing we represent," Sangakkara had said.

Younis Khan too expressed similar sentiments while talking about bombs going off in his hometown. A win here would send the country, deprived of cricket as most teams have avoided Pakistan due to security issues, into raptures.

On the cricket field, both teams look dangerous. While Pakistan appear to have peaked at the right time, Sri Lanka would draw strength from their all-round ability that has laid the best of opponents low in their run-up to the final.

The last time the two teams met, the Lankans won by 19 runs at the same venue. But Sangakkara knows he cannot make the mistake of underestimating Pakistan.

However, the Lankans look to have the edge on paper, given their strong batting line-up that includes the tournament’s top-scorer Tillakeratne Dilshan, the explosive Sanath Jayasuriya, the hard-hitting Sangakkara and the reliable Jayawardene.

Pakistan’s big issue will be to contend with the three Ms — Mendis, Murali, Malinga while the relatively new M, Mathews was at his destructive best against the Windies on Friday.

Having said that, Pakistan has batsmen capable of changing the nature of the game as Shahid Afridi showed against South Africa in the semis. Add Kamran Akmal, Misbah-ul Haq, Younis Khan and Shoaib Malik to the list and the Greens look combustible.

They are a tight unit when it comes to bowling too, given the performances of seamers Mohammed Aamer and Umar Gul, not to mention spinners Saeed Ajmal, Malik and Afridi.

With not much to separate the teams, the final should be a cracker of a contest.

Squads

Sri Lanka (from): Kumar Sangakkara (captain), Muttiah Muralitharan, Sanath Jayasuriya, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardena, Chamara Silva, Angelo Mathews, Ajantha Mendis, Nuwan Kulasekara, Thilan Thushara, Lasith Malinga, Isuru Udana, Farveez Maharoof, Jehan Mubarak, Indika de Seram.

Pakistan (from): Younis Khan (captain), Salman Butt, Ahmed Shahzad, Misbah-ul-Haq, Kamran Akmal, Fawad Alam, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Sohail Tanvir, Abdul Razzaq, Iftikhar Anjum, Umar Gul, Mohammad Aamir, Saeed Ajmal, Shazaib Hasan.