The Hindu : Sport : Key encounter for India

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Wednesday, Sep 19, 2007
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Sport

Key encounter for India

Nandita Sridhar

— Photo: AFP

TIME TO FIRE: India will look to Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag to come good in the crucial tie against England.

Durban: India and England showcased the delightful intricacies of a quality Test series, and also managed to keep the interest alive till the final encounter of their seven-game one-day series recently.

The Twenty20 super-eight match between the two could be the one that alters the balance of Group E (India, England, South Africa and New Zealand). An Indian win will shut England out, but the team will rely on the result of the New Zealand-South Africa clash on Wednesday for a clearer picture of its semifinal chances.

A loss to England would require South Africa to self-destruct in the rest of its matches if India has to qualify. You know you’re in trouble when you rely on the math.

Distractions

The Indian team had its share of distractions on Tuesday. M.S. Dhoni’s appointment as India’s ODI captain and the team announced for the one-day series against Australia aren’t easy topics to brush off, especially since the likes of Virender Sehwag, Ajit Agarkar and Rohit Sharma haven’t made it to the one-day squad.

However, captain Dhoni said that it wouldn’t affect them. “It’s not really difficult. All the guys are talented, it’s just a matter of being in form or not. Guys being left out means they are not really at the peak of their form right now.

“They just need to earn some points in the domestic cricket and get back. It’s the international team, so whoever is in top form and best nick will get to play for the team,” he added.

The Indians have had finishing problems, both in their bowling and batting. They failed to capitalise after reducing New Zealand to 91 for five, and couldn’t build on the brilliant start given by Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir.

“A lot of our players are not too experienced in this format,” said Gambhir. The format has evolved at an unexpected rate, and waiting for it to grow on you might be too late.

Close matches

England has found a good replacement for Matt Prior in Vikram Solanki, but the team is coming off two close defeats.

England captain Paul Collingwood tried to sound positive about his team’s qualification chances. “Mathematically, we are still in with a chance. We just have to go all out against India and win the match.

“In the matches we have lost, we have been down by just five or ten per cent. Our guys are committed and we’ll try our best to qualify,” he said.

Both teams haven’t been in their best form in the super-eight stage and would be keen to come up with a good show on Wednesday.

The teams: India: M.S. Dhoni (capt.), Ajit Agarkar, Piyush Chawla, Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik, Irfan Pathan, Yusuf Pathan, Virender Sehwag, Joginder Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Rohit Sharma, R.P. Singh, Yuvraj Singh, S. Sreesanth and Robin Uthappa.

England: Paul Collingwood (capt.), James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Andrew Flintoff, James Kirtley, Darren Maddy, Kevin Pietersen, Chris Schofield, Owais Shah, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Jeremy Snape, Vikram Solanki, Chris Tremlett and Luke Wright.

Umpires: Billy Doctrove and Simon Taufel.

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