Complacent Indians look to turn the tide

KANPUR, DEC 10: The one-wicket thrilling victory achieved by Zimbabwe in the third one-day at Jodhpur brought the series alive after India...

KANPUR, DEC 10: The one-wicket thrilling victory achieved by Zimbabwe in the third one-day at Jodhpur brought the series alive after India looked like making a clean sweep of the five-match series with victories in the first two games at Cuttack and Ahmedabad.

Indian coach John Wright, too, seems to have realised the two main weaknesses of the team and spent over four hours with the players at the ground this morning, emphasising on their fielding and bowling. “They need to undergo lot of hard work still,” he said at the end of the long training session at the venue here.

The Indians have replaced Nikhil Chopra and Shiv Sundar Das with Aashish Kapoor and Virender Sehwag for the final two games. The selectors’ policy of recalling a tried player (Kapoor) remains a mystery. The off spinner, who was a member of the Indian World Cup team four years ago, has already represented three states in domestic cricket (Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Rajasthan and back again with Tamil Nadu). The selectors have chosen to ignore the claims of some of the young offices in the country. “He took 60 wickets in domestic cricket last season,” was how skipper Ganguly defended Aashish Kapoor’s inclusion in the squad.

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So much for the selectors’ policy of grooming players for the next World Cup.

The Zimbabawe players are naturally upbeat after their victory at Jodhpur. It has helped them regain their self confidence and a hope that they could still come back and win the next two games to clinch the series.

The Flower brothers’ partnership of 158 runs for the fourth wicket at Jodhpur was the big turning point for the visitors. Skipper Heath Streak and youngster Mluleki Nkala capitalised on that and forced victory for the team. The limited Indian attack was fully exposed.

The one-day record between the two countries may be in favour of the home team. But by their performance at Jodhpur, the Zimbabweans have amply demonstrated that they will be no pushovers. They are determined to show that the Jodhpur win was no flash in the pan.

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India have won four and lost two ODIs at the Green Park Stadium here so far. The venue has so far witnessed seven ODIs since December 24, 1986. Of the other ODIs, India won four — against England in Oct 1989, Sri Lanka in November 1993, Zimbabwe during 1996 World Cup and against Australia in April 1998.

India conceded defeats to Sri Lanka (Dec 1986) and West Indies in Oct 1994.

TEAMS (from):

INDIA:Saurav Ganguly (Captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Hemang Badani, Virender Sehwag, Vijay Dahiya, Ajit Agarkar, Venkatesh Prasad, Sridharan Sriram, Aashish Kapoor, Sunil Joshi.

ZIMBABWE: Heath Streak (Captain), Guy Whittall, Andy Flower, Grant Flower, Alistair Campbell, Stuart Carlisle, Gavin Rennie, Douglas Marillier, Travis Friend, T Madondo, Mluleki Nkala, Bryan Murphy, Bryan Strang and Henry Olonga.

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UMPIRES:C K Sathe (Pune) and Devender Sharma (Del). third UMPIRE: G A Prats (Chennai)

Match Referee: Barry Jarman (Australia).

On Saturday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is set to visit the affected areas and is likely to meet families of the victims.

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