The Hindu : India and Australia evenly matched

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 23, 2003

Sport

Sport - World Cup

India and Australia evenly matched

By Vijay Lokapally

JOHANNESBURG MARCH 22. Sporting sainthood awaits Sachin Tendulkar if he carries India to the summit of one-day cricket. The fans are convinced that he is a messiah and Tendulkar, indeed, holds the key if oriental magic is to work at The Wanderers.

Let there be no illusions now. Reality is that India, much maligned by its own people a few weeks ago, is determined to topple mighty Australia.

The stage is set for a titanic clash as the ICC Cricket World Cup enters the decisive phase.

The best team in the world faces a threat from the most improved.

One team is ever-hungry for success and the other excels in phases. The Aussies know the pressure, some of them having played the final four years ago. None of the Indians has any Cup final experience, and here, it becomes vital for Tendulkar to bat to his potential.

One remembers the batting philosophy of Viv Richards, who always maintained that he had a specific role to play on big occasions. He knew the others would be nervous and that was the reason for him to give his best.

Richards used to psyche himself and raise his game. Tendulkar is quite capable of doing it. And then he also has to disprove those critics who belittle his feats by pointing at his failures in the finals.

True, one individual cannot win the battle. It will have to be teamwork. Let the team remember the 1983 final when each individual had a role to play.

For India, abounding in talent, a triumph will mean the culmination of a most wonderful and eventful journey, the likes of which were witnessed in 1983, and then again in 1985, when it conquered the world of limited overs cricket.

It is not beyond the reach of a team, which discovered its true potential on the pitches in South Africa, trampling all opposition after the shockingly disastrous performance against Australia at Centurion. It was a rude wake up call for India, which improved as a unit to such an extent that the opponents lost sleep in the subsequent matches.

India's march to the final has been well documented. So has been Australia's imposing presence in the tournament, maintaining an invincible posture.

It is Australia's quality of cricket that raises visions of a keen contest, with a promise by India that it can match Ricky Ponting's brigade.

It is a matter of one big innings and one destructive spell.

It could be Tendulkar and Javagal Srinath for India or Andrew Symonds and Glenn McGrath for Australia.

Past holds no threat and it shall be of utmost importance how fast the Indians drive the ghost of Centurion away and settle down to play some exciting cricket.

It promises to be a fascinating test of nerves and skills. The Australians have looked as menacing as ever, with few loopholes. The fact that they have found a saviour in every crisis speaks for the team's mental resolve.

These are signs of a champion team and Australia has looked every bit that.

A most compact combination, Australia draws its strength from its strong self-belief that it cannot lose to any team on this planet. The ability to recover from crippling situations has been Australia's forte and the point was well driven in its conquests of Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

There is a unique quality that defines Australian cricket and it revolves around the faith the skipper has in every member.

It is difficult to recall Steve Waugh losing his composure and the trend has not changed under Ponting's captaincy.

He backs his team to tame the wildest. Australia's most lethal weapon remains Lee even as the canny McGrath, a stealth bomber really, lurks on the horizon.

Lee has the potential to destroy the opposition in short bursts but he can be erratic too and it is this phase that the Indians will look to exploit.

The hard surface at The Wanderers beckons strokeplayers and India has a surfeit of them to take the fight to the Aussie camp.

For the first time in many years, the Indian team looks prepared in every aspect of the game. The captain is ensconced in his seat with ambitions looking to be fulfilled.

Sourav Ganguly knows the significance of the occasion too well, his 100th match as captain, to allow any loss of form or focus to ruin his record.

He has grown in the eyes of his admirers and has come to earn the respect of his critics with his honest backing of the players. It is his own form that he needs to master if India is to make a match of it.

True, Ganguly has scored three centuries in this tournament _ two against Kenya and one against Namibia _ but his aggregate against the rest has been 111 in seven innings.

He owes the team a big innings against a big opposition and this is the ideal stage for him.

The team, however, prays silently for Tendulkar to get cracking. If Virender Sehwag too can use his whip on the day of reckoning, it shall mean half the battle won because nothing perturbs an Aussie more than the thought that the combat is even.

The Aussie resilience is too well known but it is also true that the team, like any other team, cracks under pressure.

Of course, the intensity of the pressure too counts and the Indians have done their study on the Australians. Each player has a dossier of each Australian and the task cut out with meticulous details.

Comparisons can be meaningless most times but one is tempted to give more marks to the Indian attack, given its recent record. Srinath, Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra are keyed up to settle a few scores and this trio will certainly make the difference.

Zaheer, with his newly-developed inswinger, and Nehra, with his away-going delivery, provide the ideal support to Srinath, who has finally mastered the art of making the batsman play. India looks to them.

We love characters. We love depicting a clash between personalities, Tendulkar verses Lee, Adam Gilchrist v Zaheer. Will Tendulkar attack Lee or temper his instincts and see off the brute of a bowler.

Will Zaheer snare Gilchrist? Such duels can brighten up the game.

As far as India is concerned, it goes into the arena with a nothing-to-lose attitude. If it wins, it would have beaten the best team. If it loses, it would have lost to the best team. It is a comforting thought, and a driving force too, for the team to go on the offensive.

Records show that teams that have been aggressive against Australia have often won. When we arrived in South Africa, the heart, more than the mind, backed India to win the Cup.

Ten matches and nine victories later, heart and mind are on same wavelength. India looks the likely team to win the Cup on Sunday.

The teams (from): India: Sourav Ganguly (captain), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Mohammad Kaif, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Mongia, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Javagal Srinath, Ashish Nehra, Anil Kumble, Sanjay Bangar, Ajit Agarkar and Parthiv Patel.

Australia: Ricky Ponting (captain), Mathew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist, Darren Lehmann, Damien Martyn, Michael Bevan, Andrew Symonds, Ian Harvey, Brad Hogg, Brett Lee, Andy Bichel, Glenn McGrath, Jimmy Maher, Nathan Bracken and Nathan Hauritz.

Umpires: Steve Bucknor and David Shepherd; Third umpire: Rudi Koertzen; Fourth umpire: Billy Bowden; Match Referee: Ranjan Madugalle.

Hours of play: 1.30 p.m. to 5 p.m.; 5.45 p.m. onward.

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