Advantage India, but beware of complacency

Safer, then, to leave predictions to tarot-card readers and focus on what is known. The most important phase of the match will be the first 15 overs, where the two speed batteries will do their work.

India’s new-found pace muscle flexed its strength today, quite literally. While the batsmen were busy practising at the nets, three men in vests — chests proudly sticking out — walked in with physio Andrew Leipus.

Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra didn’t bowl at the nets but worked on their bodies for tomorrow. Skipper Saurav Ganguly later revealed, ‘‘Since those guys are playing well there is no need them to exhaust them at the nets.’’

If the Indian bowlers are on a high, the Pakistan batsmen who will face them are at a new low. Saeed Anwar, the opener who reminds the English of WG Grace, has forgotten, it seems, the skills which could prompt a more cricketing comparison and is no longer the batsman who tormented India at Chennai some years back.

Problems with opening pairs are, it seems, a subcontinental affliction. India may have sorted out theirs but Pakistan have played Anwar, Shahid Afridi, Taufeeq Umar and Salim Elahi in various combinations this tournament; none has clicked.

Trimmer and fitter, Inzamam-ul-Haq seems to have put runs on his diet menu too. While Yousuf Youhana, who completed his ton with a last-ball six the last time the two teams played, might still haunted by that first ball toe-crushing yorker from James Anderson against England.

No wonder Waqar Younis preferred to dwell on his bowlers, though they aren’t performing at full steam either. ‘‘The bowling department is a shade well off’’, Waqar conceded today, but pointed out that they had rocked the Aussies before Andrew Symonds’s rescue act and had their moments against England.

Which brings us to tomorrow’s showpiece event, the battle between Pakistan’s bowlers and India’s batsmen. Shoaib Akhtar has already announced, WWF-style, his intentions for the morrow: ‘‘I want to have a go at the Indian batsmen.’’ He will find, though, that shooting a yorker through an in-form Sachin Tendulkar will be much more difficult than shooting off his mouth.

Ganguy’s gameplan for tomorrow is to ‘‘keep wickets in hand’’ and ‘‘scoring quickly in the final overs’’. In between, though, lies India’s Achilles heel, its mid-innings frailty. A repeat of the crawl they acted out against England could prove more destructive given that the later overs here will be bowled by the likes of Wasim, Waqar and Shoaib. To put things in perspective, the wicket hauls of the entire English attack add up to less than that of Akram’s 500.

India appear likely to retain the side that beat England but Mongia could be moved down the order and Kaif up; the latter’s hit-and-run style will unsettle the Pakistani fielders. Mongia had a long session with coach John Wright at the nets, practising the aerial shots which could be useful in the slog overs.

What it boils down to, though, is — as Waqar put it — holding one’s nerve. That may well be the key. Then again, when India play Pakistan, anythng can happen.