Rain may dampen Kiwi opener

MUMBAI, September 29: Great Expectations loom large for the Indian hopefuls as the curtain goes up on the domestic cricket season at the Nehru Stadium here on Thursday. An international flavour in the form of the visiting New Zealand side provides the fringe players knocking the doors of selection to the Indian team, an ideal opportunity to showcase their mettle.

The spotlight would also be on 21-year-old Mumbai opener Wasim Jaffer, Bengal opener Devang Gandhi, left-arm spinner Murali Karthik of Railways and Tamil Nadu all-rounder Sridharan Sriram who have been among the reckoning for a berth in the national squad. Trying to make their mark would be localites middle-order batsman Abhihit Kale, medium-pacer Iqbal Siddiqui and young left-arm speedster Sachin Nair, who claimed 19 wickets on debut, last season.

A wet spell since the past two days, has thrown a dampener to the proceedings. Though the pitch has withstood the rain, it is the outfield that will be a cause for worry.

The teams from

New Zealand:Stephen Fleming captain, Nathan Astle, Mathew Horne, Craig Spearman, Matthew Bell, Craig McMillan, Chris Cairns, Adam Parore wicket-keeper, Chris Harris, Dion Nash, Chris Drum, Shayne O8217;Connor, Andrew Penn, Daniel Vettori and Paul Wiseman.

India A: Amol Muzumdar captain, Devang Gandhi, Wasim Jaffer, Abhijit Kale, Manoj Mudgal wicket-keeper, Sridharan Sriram, Connor Williams, Murali Karthik, Iqbal Siddiqui, Amit Bhandari, Sanjay Kumar Satpathy, Sachin Nair and Jatinder Singh.

Umpires: AV Jayaprakash Karnataka and Madan Singh Karnataka.