The Hindu : A disciplined approach needed from Indian bowlers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 26, 2003

Sport

Sport - Cricket

A disciplined approach needed from Indian bowlers

The Indians will face a stern test when they take on World champion Australia in a day-night game at Gwalior on Sunday. The teams are meeting for the first time after the World Cup final, and I am sure the home side would only be too keen to settle some old scores.

The Indians would do well to remember the lessons from the World Cup final. The bowlers, especially the pacemen, will have to operate with discipline. We all know that providing width to the Australian batsmen can be disastrous.

Mathew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist are destroyers of bowling, and the best ploy for the pacemen would be to operate stump to stump; it would not hurt even if they sacrifice some pace for accuracy. The idea should be to cramp and frustrate the explosive opening pair.

Some of the past matches at Gwalior have produced a lot of runs, and we might have a high-scoring encounter. The Indian batting is strong too, and Sachin Tendulkar, during his knock at Chennai, showed encouraging signs.

With the sides more or less evenly matched, fielding and running between the wickets could make all the difference in the end. These are two crucial aspects of limited overs cricket and any team that ignores them does so at its own peril.

The Indians have worked extremely hard at their fitness and it would be interesting to see how much effort they put in on the field. Nothing short of total commitment will do against Australia.

The strength of the Australian team is its resilience. The Aussies have, on numerous occasions, gone on to win matches from desperate situations. We do not have to look beyond the World Cup for proof of the Australian fighting spirit, where the side staged remarkable comebacks against England and New Zealand.

While there has been much focus on men like Hayden, Gilchrist, Ponting and Bevan, let's not forget that Andrew Symonds, such a revelation during the World Cup, could perform extremely well in the competition. He uses his feet against the spinners and is a fine striker of the ball.

Coming to Thursday's match at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium, it was a pity that rain ruined what could have been an exhilarating contest.

The Indians, with Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh still in the middle, were in a position to cross 250, and under lights, it might not have been an easy target to chase for the Kiwis.

However, if we look at the contest, all the three Indian wickets fell due to mistakes committed by the batsmen. This is an area the host will have to look at carefully.

Laxman appeared in great touch before finding a fielder in the deep and I was disappointed that he departed in such a manner. If this gifted cricketer puts his mind over matter we could see some big scores from him during the tournament.

The Kiwi pacemen will have to get their length right against the Indians. They tended to pitch too short and were punished by Sehwag and Tendulkar.

www.kris-srikkanth.com

K.SRIKKANTH

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