A hard battle ahead

By Abhijit Sen Gupta

HYDERABAD, JAN. 26. The final cricket Test of the series between the India and England under-19 teams could turn out to be a hard fought battle if the attitude of the two teams is anything to go by.

While England, which is trailing at the moment, would like to win this match and end the series on level terms, the Indian squad's aim is to at least retain, if not consolidate upon, the lead, and emerge decisively on top.

The visiting side is hopeful of putting up its best show here. Coach Tim Boon has pinned his hopes on the fact that the morale of his boys is very high and so also the motivation level.

The England coach feels that there are many aspects of the game his players have picked up on this tour and that would stand them in good stead in their future careers. Playing on pitches on the sub-continent has been a vastly different experience from playing on their lush green grounds and he is happy at the way his boys have adapted themselves.

The dramatic collapse against the spin of Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan may have been a worrying factor for the visiting side. But the England players seemed to have adjusted themselves in the second Test and the consistent form of Ian Bell and Nicky Peng's good knock in Chennai could prove to be morale boosters.

Nicky Peng's confidence must be very high after that fine century and particularly the manner in which he handled the Indian spin attack should make him the danger man yet again.

The pitch here is known to be batsman friendly and it would be wise for the home team to have a plan ready to contain the rival batsmen if they strike form.

In bowling, the England seamers seem to have adjusted to the conditions. McGarry came up with a good show in the previous Test in Chennai while Bishop and Tremlett provided adequate support.

But the aspect that the visitors will have to pay attention to is fielding where a few dropped catches could well allow the advantage to slip as it happened on more than one occasion.

As for the Indian side, its coach Roger Binny has opined that he is happy with the approach of the team till this stage. His boys have shown a willingness to apply themselves to the task at hand and their fitness level and confidence are high, he feels.

A few small chinks are still there in the armour but these are not major weaknesses and can be ironed out, feels Binny. The form of the batsmen is good, particularly Gautam Gambhir and Vinayak Mane, who showed the right technique and temperament when they were involved in that huge partnership in the Chennai Test.

Binny feels that the other batsmen are also capable of coming up with big scores if they curb their instinct to go for runs too early. A draw would be enough for India but the home team would prefer to go out with a win to underline its superiority.

The teams:

India: Ajay Ratra (captain), Vinayak Mane, Gautam Gambhir, Y. Gnaneswara Rao, Kashinath Khadkikar, Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan, Ishan Ganda, Parthiv Patel, Mulewa Dharmichand, Nitin Agarwal, Siddharth Trivedi, Alind Naidu, Amit Mishra, Arindam Das, Maninder Singh. Coach: Roger Binny.

England: Ian Bell (captain), John Sadler, Gary Pratt, Kadeer Ali, Ian Pattison, Justin Bishop, Andrew McGarry, Robert Ferley, Chris Tremlett, Monty Panesar, Nadeem Malik, Kyle Hogg, Gordon Muchall, Nicky Peng, Mark Wallace. Coach: Tim Boon.

Umpires: V.K. Ramaswamy and O. Krishna.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Sport
Previous : Australia stays undefeated
Next     : He expected a better deal from the Board