DURBAN, 26 February 2003 — The last few encounters between India and England have been breathtaking affairs showcasing what both teams are capable of when they are playing their best cricket. This time, they meet at Durban, where both teams will be eager to book a place in the Super Six without leaving things for their last games. Interestingly, both India and England will travel from Durban to meet arch rivals Pakistan and Australia, respectively. Those will be huge games, and a win at Durban will give them the confidence required to play against your traditional rivals.
This is the second day-night game that England will be playing, and once again, the toss will be important. I have no doubt that whoever wins it will want to exploit the dew and swing under lights. I was a little perturbed by the comments of some experts that suggested that England’s fine win against Pakistan at Cape Town was due to the toss rather than James Anderson’s fine efforts.
Bowling under lights is a big advantage in South Africa, but the bowler has to still hit the right spot to exploit conditions. Moreover, Pakistan’s top batsmen Inzamam and Youhana were done in by two splendid away-swingers that were the result of fine bowling and not just helpful conditions.
At Durban, England will be aware that unlike the Pakistanis, the Indian batsmen have slowly come back into form after a poor start to the tournament. They will know that Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid will be the men to target, but the NatWest finals will remind them that the others can be matchwinners as well. It is to England’s advantage that while both teams have seen a lot of each other over the last 12 months, the Indians will find Anderson to be an unknown quantity. The youngster holds the key to England’s fortunes tomorrow. If he can bowl as well as he did at Newlands, Nasser Hussain will be assured of an early breakthrough.
As far as England’s batting is concerned, Michael Vaughan has become the backbone of the lineup. However, Marcus Trescothick could also be interesting to watch since he has always enjoyed batting against India. He has not been in touch since the Ashes series, and would be desperate to get back among the runs. For the team batting second, the openers will have a crucial role to play. Whatever the target may be, a circumspect approach at the start might be a good idea. The openers would do well to play out the early overs when the extra movement will be more pronounced.
I am very happy with the way the England team looked on the field against Pakistan. The challenging tour in Australia seems to have toughened them up a fair bit, and now they are very much in the running for a berth in the Super Sixes in spite of forfeiting four points against Zimbabwe. England have lost their last two big games against India. What better time to avenge those losses.
