After everything that has been said, done, won, lost, it all comes down to two good days. Forget the last month-and-a-half. Congratulations to the four semi-finalists. Now, do they have the stomach for two more outstanding performances?

And outstanding is what is required. New Zealand takes on Sri Lanka today and in a perfect match-up, Muttiah Muralitharan will be the biggest threat to New Zealand’s slightly spin-scared batsmen. For Sri Lanka, they need to watch out for the big man, Shane Bond.

The last two World Cups threw up some badly one-sided semi-finals and finals. Apart from the legendary Australia versus South Africa semi-final in 1999, there haven’t been too many good matches at this stage since almost 1996. But one gets the feeling that this time, there will be more fight in both the semi-finals and the final.

For one of the two teams today, it will be goodbye. But that will perhaps not be because they played badly. It could be more because they were overwhelmed by the occasion and could not handle the big match pressure. Sri Lanka and New Zealand have had relatively easy routes to the semi-final unlike South Africa who really had to fight it out. So if any team cannot handle the pressure, it could be one of these two.

Sri Lanka and New Zealand are perhaps the best-matched teams of the tournament. They both won five of their seven Super Eight matches; both lost a game to Australia (well, who didn’t?) and while Sri Lanka beat New Zealand in their match, that probably won’t count for much in the semi-final where the stakes are so much higher.

It is rather tough to pick out a winner from these two since both have a good batting and bowling line-up. But on the topic of who would want to chase, one has to think it’s Sri Lanka. They have a slightly better defined batting order and New Zealand would fancy their chances of restricting Sri Lanka to a manageable total. On the question of what is a manageable total, it’s tough to say.

The curator of the Sabina Park in Jamaica thinks the team winning the toss should bowl first which indicates the presence of moisture and assistance to bowlers early on. This could also mean that the target the team batting first sets won’t be in excess of 300. But as we have seen throughout the World Cup, the team batting first can get steamrolled in the second session if their total is not competitive.

Once again, we won’t hazard a guess about the winner. It’s come down to the final four and in five days, there may be a new World Champion. The battle begins today.