Relaxing too much could be dangerous

Otherwise, what happened in the 1996 World Cup was about to be repeated. In Bangalore, we beat Pakistan in the quarters without much ado. But we were badly mauled by Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens. It was only because of over confidence and complacency.

Tomorrow, India are playing the same opposition at The Wanderers. The wicket looks nicely rolled, dry and devoid of grass. It will be a good batting track initially and may respond to spin slightly in the latter half, making strokeplay difficult.

Even though Jayasuria is out of action, thanks to that snorter that chucked bolt from Brett Lee, India just can’t afford to relax. They still have talented batsmen like Atapattu and veteran Aravinda de Silva, both on a high after great innings recently.

There’s also the dependable Hashan Tillekaratne. And though players like Jayawardena, Arnold and Sangakkara are not in great touch, they can get cracking any moment.

I feel, like the Aussie openers, the Indians shouldn’t allow Vaas to settle down. He has done extremely well so far. But at the same time, if Sachin and Sehwag get going together for a change, their pacers don’t stand a chance.

And this is where the topic of our seventh batter comes in. Mongia hardly gets a chance to bat, and when he does, he squanders it.

Why not have Mongia replaced by Kumble then? Kumble bowls well in tandem with Harbhajan and the pitches are quite responsive at the moment.

However, India will definitely need to field much better to ensure a safe passage into the semis.