McGrath and Lee have a plan ready’ for Sachin Tendulkar

When the two teams crossed their path in the hotel lobby on Friday morningon way to practice, the Australians were shaking Tendulkar by the hand andinquiring about his well being. They, of course, wished him luck forSaturday’s battle royal. But, the friendship ends tonight itself.

For, when India and Australia clash in the ICC Knock-out Mini-World Cupquarterfinal, there won’t be an Australian at the Nairobi Gymkhana who wouldwant the sight of Tendulkar in the middle for long. “Tendulkar is thekey,” feels the Aussie skipper Steve Waugh .

“We get him out early and we have had a good stranglehold over himrecently the Indians would be under pressure.” Both Lee and McGrath can’twait for the action to begin. “He is not going to have an easy time outthere. We have a plan ready for him,” the duo say in chorus. “You know Ihave had the upper hand over him in the last few games. This time I amlooking to get him in the first overs,” threatens McGrath.

It’s strange why, despite Tendulkar’s moderate run last season, he continuesto be India’s true hope, next only to God. There are others like skipperSaurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid but why only Tendulkar? “That’s because heis World class on any ground, any wicket and against any opposition,” saysthe former South African great Barry Richards, here in Nairobi as acommentator.

“Saurav is good but only at home (or sub-continent wickets). He hasn’tscored many runs in adverse conditions against good bowling attack. Rahul,too, cannot dominate the bowling but Tendulkar can win any game on his own.

His shot selection is marvellous. All he needs is people like Saurav andRahul to back him up,” Richards opines.

Yes, Tendulkar it was who prevailed in the first edition of the Knock-OutCup when his blazing century edged India past Australia in the quarterfinalthen. But that was two years back, on a typical sub-continent batting wicketat Dhaka.

So much so for the Tendulkar mania. Here the conditions are different. Thewicket is pacy, has some bounce and the ball swings about more than theIndian batsmen would wish for. So, when Lee, arguably the world’s fastestbowler, and McGrath, the most accurate ones to have the red cherry in theirhands tomorrow, you know where they will keep pounding that.

Only yesterday Aussie coach John Buchanan was pointing out how the Indiansstruggle “when the ball comes on to their rib cages.” The Lee-McGrathfactor is certainly haunting the Indians. There is already a word from thedressing room that Ganguly might drop lower down the order to “strengthenthe (brittle) middle order.” One can infer it as one may but the fact isapart from the first three Tendulkar, Ganguly and Dravid, the Yuvrajs,Kamblis and whosoever follows will have nightmares if Lee and McGrath are invenomous form.

Also, the poor relegated-opener Sridharan Sriram will find it extremelydifficult to cope with the new ball. It’s a Catch-22 situation? Do we needto talk about the amazingly-acrobatic Aussie fielding? They run like hares,can scoop catches from any position and hit the stumps from the acute ofangles making one wonder from where the next run is going to come. It’sstruggle, struggle and struggle.

The Aussies have one problem though. They too are coming off a lay-offthough they found time in between to play an indoor series with SouthAfrica, which they lost. Other than that, most of the cricketers have eitherkept themselves busy by playing in English county cricket or just watchingthe Olympic Games back home.

India have already played a game to Australia’s nil so maybe the Aussiebatting will be slightly rusty. That doesn’t, however, belittle theembarrassment of riches they have. If someone like Andrew Symonds doesn’thave a fixed slot and can bat at any of the numbers six, seven or eightspot, the Indian bowlers know what to expect! There is Mark Waugh, AdamGilchrist, Ricky Ponting, Michael Bevan, Steve Waugh…they just don’t stopcoming at you.

The Indians are talking “pace” with the newcomer left-arm seamer ZaheerKhan’s presence. Ajit Agarkar and Venkatesh Prasad are good but frankly,they would bank on leg spinner Anil Kumble for miracles. Lately, Kumble hasonly met with mediocre success against the Australians as they have beenemploying the sweep shot very cleverly. They don’t look for boundaries, justpat the ball for singles and at run-a-ball you know what the scoreboard canlook after 50 overs.

There was a poser for Ganguly: What do you think, skipper, will be thewinning total here? “I think around 260-270 will do.” No mean task this.

First, getting to the figure (God, Tendulkar willing!) and then restrictingthe Aussies below that.The Teams

India (from): Saurav Ganguly (Capt), Sachin Tendulkar, RahulDravid, Vinod Kambli, Yuvraj Singh, Robin Singh, Vijay Dahiya, Anil Kumble,Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, Venkatesh Prasad and Sridharan Sriram, SunilJoshi and Hemang Badani.

AUSTRALIA (from): Steve Waugh (Capt), Mark Waugh, Adam Gilchrist, RickyPonting, Michael Bevan, Andrew Symonds, Shane Lee, Brett Lee, Glenn McGrath,Damien Martyn, Jason Giliespie, Ian Harvey, Colin Miller and Mark Higgs.

Umpires: Steve Bucknor and David Shepherd.
Third umpire: Peter Willey

Hours of play (IST): 12.15 p.m. onwards.
Live telecast on: ESPN and DD