India must bridge gap between performance and potential
25 July 2001
Winless in the series so far, a young but talented Indian side will
have to get their act together when they take on New Zealand in their
third league match of the Coca-Cola Cup tri-series in Colombo on
Thursday to stay in the reckoning for the final.
With Sri Lanka winning their match against New Zealand by five wickets
today, India's cause has been helped and they must now win at least
two of the remaining four league matches to hope for a place in the
final. The hosts, with three consecutive victories under their belt
and six points are almost assured of a final slot ahead of New Zealand
who have two points.
"It is a do or die situation," Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly summed it
up aptly on the eve of the crucial match.
Coach John Wright confirmed that Ajit Agarkar and Debasish Mohanty
have been ruled out and named the same 13 that lost to Sri Lanka by
six runs in the previous outing for tomorrow's match.
Losing their opening encounter against New Zealand by a huge margin of
84 runs and then fumbling at the winning post by six runs against Sri
Lanka in the next, India have been quite unpredictable which makes
weighing their chances a dicey proposition.
The bowlers have done a commendable job, sticking to a tidy line and
length but the batsmen have been a huge disappointment, gifting away
their wickets to unnecessary shots or being unable to rotate the
strike in crunch situations.
It defied reason to see a batsman of the calibre of Rahul Dravid
struggling to get a boundary off even a full toss when India needed 12
runs in the last over for a win.
India's case has been one of a huge gap between potential and
performance so far and the coach and the skipper must do a bit of
soul-searching to find match-winning solutions before it is too late.
Ganguly is finally among the runs and there is no reason why he should
demote himself down the order. He should not repeat the mistake he
made in the previous match against Sri Lanka, promoting Harbhajan
Singh ahead of himself only to see the plan backfire.
With all-rounders like Yuvraj Singh, Hemang Badani, Virender Sehwag
and Reetinder Singh Sodhi in their ranks, the Indians must open with
Ganguly and Amay Khurasiya for a solid start to the innings.
The task for the Indian batsmen has been made tough by the absence of
their mainstay Sachin Tendulkar but India must get over their over-
dependence on the maestro and play as a well-knit team.
The participating teams have shrugged off threats from LTTE guerillas
and looked largely unaffected by the politically volatile situation as
they have continued with their regular practice and scotched rumours
of scrapping off the series midway.
© PTI
Teams
|
India,
New Zealand,
Sri Lanka.
|
Players/Umpires
|
Sourav Ganguly,
Ajit Agarkar,
Debasis Mohanty,
John Wright,
Rahul Dravid,
Yuvraj Singh,
Hemang Badani,
Virender Shewag,
Reetinder Sodhi,
Amay Khurasiya,
Sachin Tendulkar.
|
Tournaments
|
Coca-Cola Cup (Sri Lanka) |