da betcris： India seem to have a problem of plenty ahead of the last leagueencounter of the triangular one-day series for the Coca Cola Cupagainst the West Indies in Harare on Wednesday which is a precursor tothe final on July 7
03-Jul-2001India seem to have a problem of plenty ahead of the last leagueencounter of the triangular one-day series for the Coca Cola Cupagainst the West Indies in Harare on Wednesday which is a precursor tothe final on July 7.With both teams having confirmed their places in the final, it wouldbe a battle for psychological one-upmanship.India’s batting and bowling departments are overflowing with in-formplayers and each of the 15 members of the squad look good enough tomake it to the playing eleven. Many youngsters got a chance to provetheir talent in this tournament and since all of them grabbed theopportunity with both hands, the team management will have a difficulttask at hand in selecting the final composition.The main spots of contention are the slots for the medium pacers withas many as five seamers vying for the three places and the numberthree place in the batting order where VVS Laxman is still nursing hisfinger injury that has kept him out of the last two matches.On the other hand, West Indies too are buoyed by the victory overZimbabwe in the previous game having raised their performance byseveral notches when the chips were down.West Indies defeated Zimbabwe in a nail-biting finish and that musthave given them a lot of confidence as they go into tomorrow’s gamehoping to maintain that form.But the formidable Indian bowling line-up would surely give themsleepless nights. The team management is still to come out with itsplans for the medium pacers with the final composition of the teamlikely to be announced only tomorrow morning.The three automatic choices in the fast bowling department at thestart of the tournament – Ashish Nehra, Zaheer Khan and Ajit Agarkar -were put on alert following the impressive performances by DebasishMohanty and Harvinder Singh in the last game.Mohanty and Harvinder, playing their first international games of thetour, made the most of the opportunity provided to them and returnedfigures of 3-18 and 2-25 respectively. They bowled a probing line andtroubled the batsmen throughout their spell.It will be difficult to keep either of them out of the game tomorrowand that could mean bad news for Agarkar or Zaheer or both. Zaheer,who has bowled consistently well on this tour, also claimed twowickets in the last game conceding 27 runs and it would really beunfortunate if he fails to find a place in the final eleven.There could also be the unexpected move of including four seamers inthe side and that would mean keeping off-spinner Harbhajan Singh out.Though Harbhajan has not been quite as successful on this tour asagainst the Australians in the home series, he has been impressive.With the West Indies batsmen looking uncomfortable even against modestspinners like Grant Flower and Alistair Campbell, keeping Harbhajanout may not be a very good option.In the batting department, Ganguly is slowly looking to inch back tohis elegant self and that would certainly cheer up the Indian side.After his painstakingly compiled 85 against Zimbabwe, the Indiancaptain looked a lot better with his timing and shot selection in thelast game against West Indies before he was unfortunate to be givenout.With Laxman still having a bandage around his index finger which heinjured in the first game against Zimbabwe, Dinesh Mongia once looksset to come in at No 3. Mongia has looked good in this tournament andshould he play tomorrow, he would also be almost a certainty for thefinal as Laxman would deem to have missed a lot of action in the lastcouple of weeks.While Hemang Badani is sure of a place in the final line-up, theinclusion of all-rounder Reetinder Singh Sodhi is not clear. ThePunjab youngster is an effective medium-pacer, apart from being amiddle-order batsman, and a brilliant fielder.For West Indies, openers Darren Ganga and Chris Gayle have alreadynotched up 100-run and a near 100-run partnerships and the team wouldbe looking up to them to give another sound start tomorrow.Shivnaraine Chanderpaul has failed to live up to his reputation inthis tournament and, along with captain Carl Hooper, is due for a bigscore.Wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs and Marlon Samuels have looked good andWavell Hinds has shown flashes of his immense talent but the WestIndies would need all of them to fire tomorrow as also their pacemen.The tall Cameroon Cuffy has been the pick of bowlers while both MervynDillon and Reon King have struggled to maintain good line and length.New York based leg-spinner Mahendra Nagamootoo has been impressivewith his well-directed, sharply turning leg-breaks.The teams (from):India: Saurav Ganguly (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid,Dinesh Mongia, VVS Laxman, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, Virendra Sehwag,Samir Dighe, Hemang Badani, Harvinder Singh, Debasish Mohanty, AjitAgarkar, Ashish Nehra, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh.West Indies: Carl Hooper (captain), Chris Gayle, Darren Ganga, WavellHinds, Shivnaraine Chanderpaul, Marlon Samuels, Ridley Jacobs,Cameroon Cuffy, Reon King, Mervyn Dillon, Corey Collymore and MahendraNagamootoo.Umpires: Kevin Barbour and Graham Evans.