I’m sure India’s impressive win against England would have done a lot to improve the mood of the team’s supporters back home.
Sourav Ganguly won an important toss, and like the other teams batting first in this tournament’s day-night games, made full use of batting first and bowling in the evening.
I knew England were in for trouble when I saw Rahul Dravid, who is such a sweet timer of the ball, having trouble with his timing toward the end of his innings.
The ball had started to grip the surface, and the bowlers were getting some assistance.
I have seen enough of the Indian seamers, Zaheer, Nehra and Srinath to know that they would be able to do the job. More importantly, the Indians had batted sensibly to reach 250, a total that was always going to be beyond England’s batsmen.
Nehra and Zaheer are improved bowlers who can be pretty effective in conditions where the ball swings. They looked excited and motivated on a pitch that offered them some assistance.
It is now up to the Indian authorities to repose some faith in these guys and produce pitches that will assist them and test their batsmen.
Till now India’s batsmen have been found wanting on bouncy tracks, like the one they played on against Australia, where only Sachin Tendulkar offered some resistance.
That loss against Australia seems very long ago now. At present India look pretty confident and will meet traditional foes Pakistan with the momentum on their side. However, I have seen that whenever India and Pakistan meet, the latter team prevails, regardless of what has gone before.
The Pakistanis play with more guts, more desperation and more aggression when they meet India, and we will have to wait and see if this happens at the Centurion as well.
At this stage, India are playing good cricket and Pakistan are in disarray, but I would not be surprised if all that changes when the two teams meet tomorrow.
India’s challenge will be to psyche themselves up to reach the level of preparedness that Pakistan achieves during Indo-Pak games. I guess the political rivalry and history comes into it in some ways, but India will have to find a way to lift themselves up for this big game.
As far as West Indies is concerned, their entire group has been opened up by Kenya’s remarkable victory against Sri Lanka. Once again, it’s a day-night game and the toss will be crucial. The Sri Lanka team are a wounded side right now, and in cricket, a wounded side can be dangerous.
Their loss to Kenya was a hiccup, and they are bound to come hard at their next opponent.
The Canada team were also a wounded team when they played us last week, and John Davison’s batting was a result of trying to show the world that Canada were worth much more than the 37 runs they were dismissed for by Sri Lanka.
The two main factors that will come into play will be how the West Indian batsmen will play Muthiah Muralitharan, and how our bowlers will bowl to their opening batsmen.
We have struggled against Murali in the past, but these are conditions that are very different from the ones he bowls in at home. In South Africa, the wickets are a lot harder and firmer, so he will be nullified to some extent – which is good news for our batsmen.
The other is whether our bowlers, we plan to basically stick to playing three bowlers with our bits-and-pieces bowlers looking after the remaining 20 overs.
In this tournament, our batting has been our strength, and we will rely on them in this game as well. However, we will look at getting the ball in the right spot this time – something we did not do against Davison. That performance was a wake-up call, and we will have to prove tomorrow that we have learned our lessons.
Similarly, Sri Lanka has got a wake-up call from Kenya, and will be eager to redeem themselves.
Both teams will be on their toes as there is a place in the Super Six as well as their reputation on the line.
Arab News Sports 27 February 2003
