CHENNAI

THE HINDU

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2011

19
A dream come true
Irelands George Dockrell (in pic) has said it was a dream come true for him to dismiss Sachin Tendulkar in the World Cup match

Play against Warne

It is the opportunity of a lifetime for fans as Shane Warne will bowl an over at the one who makes the highest bid during a charity match to raise funds for New Zealands earthquake victims

A chance for India to improve

Ravichandran Ashwin and Ashish Nehra deserve to have a look-in
S. Dinakar
NEW DELHI: The decisive punch should not take too long in coming when heavyweight India takes on lightweight the Netherlands in a World Cup Group B match at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground, here, on Wednesday. A victory away from ensuring its place in the quarternals, the game at the Kotla provides India a valuable opportunity to iron out the chinks before the death-or-glory knockout phase. And India does have problems, particularly in the bowling department. Spinners can be winners in the sub-continent. However, the specialist Indian spinners have failed to sting so far. Actually, Yuvraj Singhs vewicket haul against Ireland saved the regular bowlers the blushes. Ahead of the crunch duels, this is not a healthy situation to be in.

Aussies have a brief stint

BANGALORE: A few members of the Australian squad led by skipper Ricky Ponting had a brief training stint at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Tuesday. Brett Lee, Shaun Tait, Mitchell Johnson, Tim Paine and Da-

Vital overs
Harbhajan Singh has scalped two from three matches and Piyush Chawla has two from two. Consequently, India has struggled to strike in the vital middle-overs. To be fair to Harbhajan, his gures of 9-1-29-0 versus Ireland are not the kind to be scoffed at. Spinners operate in pairs and there has been little support for the off-spinning spearhead at the other end. Chawla has struggled to hone in on the right line, especially when operating at the southpaws. And the urry of runs conceded has eased pressure from the other end as well. Teams realise that Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan are the two quality bowlers in the Indian line-up and often consider it

Ashwin could combine better with Harbhajan; the two are very different off-spinners and will not cut into each other. India also has a wonderful opportunity to include left-arm paceman Ashish Nehra. There have been speculations about the level of Nehras tness. If India intends to play him in future games, he has to be tried now. Bowlers returning from injury need to rediscover their rhythm and Nehra deserves a look-in. Munaf Patel or Zaheer could be rested for the purpose. Indias last ODI at the Kotla against Sri Lanka in late 2009 had to be abandoned after 23.3 overs on account of the pitch behaving in a dangerous manner. The surface for Wednesdays match should hold no devils though. The pitch is expected to be a slow turner; there could be some assistance for the pacemen early on. The match presents the Netherlands another chance to showcase its players. The side fought hard against England, displayed plenty of spunk. In Ryan ten Doeschate it has a ne batsman who uses his feet and possesses a sense of timing. The bowling, though, is mediocre.

vid Hussey were the other players who jogged and had a session in the gym before heading back to the hotel. The champion is scheduled to play Kenya here on Sunday. Special Correspondent

ALL MINE! Harbhajan Singh with coach Gary Kirstens son, Joshua, during the practice session on the eve of Indias World Cup match against the Netherlands at the Ferozeshah Kotla. PHOTO: S. SUBRAMANIUM
wiser to see them off. The Irish batsmen were largely circumspect against Harbhajan. This said, Harbhajan needs to harness the angles, with variations in speed and length, in a more telling fashion. Indias No. 1 spinner has to rise above the compulsions of support and create his own path. Chawla went for 71 runs in his 10 overs against England and 56 in eight versus Ireland. He has impressed in phases with his wrong uns and the zz off the pitch but has lacked consistency. Chawla has delivered too many boundary balls. Leg-spinners are essentially condence bowlers no other breed of bowlers rely more on the belief of the captain and perhaps Chawla needs a longer run. out of the equation for the rest of the competition, India would do well to give Ravichandran Ashwin a ing. The off-spinner bowls with control, possesses a few interesting variations and has this ability to operate without being rufed in the Power Play overs.

Bowling with control

Yet, without leaving Chawla

The teams (from): India: M.S. Dhoni (captain), V. Sehwag, S. Tendulkar. G. Gambhir, V. Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, R. Ashwin, Zaheer Khan, A. Nehra, M. Patel, P. Chawla, S. Raina, S. Sreesanth. The Netherlands: P. Borren (captain), W. Barresi, M. Bukhari, ten Doeschate, A. Buurman, T. Cooper, Tom de Grooth, A. Kervezee, B. Kruger, B. Loots, A. Raja, P. Seelaar, E. Swarczynski, B. Westduk, B. Zuiderent. Match starts at 2.30 p.m.

A mind game and a puzzle that you solve with reasoning and logic. Fill in the grid with digits in such a manner that every row, every column and every 3x3 box accommodates the digits 1 to 9, without repeating any. The solution to yesterdays puzzle is at right.

No room for complacency: Gibson

CHANDIGARH: West Indies coach Ottis Gibson says there is no room for complacency while playing in the World Cup and his team would be approaching each game with a must-win attitude. Nowadays you cant be complacent... we cant take any opponent lightly. We have to approach every game with a must-win attitude and go and put up good performances every time, Gibson said. The West Indies plays its next match on Friday against Ireland. Gibson said he always felt that Group B was tough and his team would need to play well to qualify for the next stage. On facing Ireland, the coach said calling it minnows would not be correct and felt that every team playing in the event was a strong contender. Gibson said the Windies had seen what Ireland did to England and it even played well against India. I am not surprised by what Ireland has done, it has got a very good coach, Phil Simmons, a strong competitor. We played against Ireland in April before the Twenty20 World Cup. We saw signs of the competitive team that Ireland is. We know what to expect and we cant take it lightly, he said during an interaction here. On playing India later in the tournament, Gibson said it was always a challenge to face it. Playing against the Indians anywhere in the world is a challenge. Playing against them in India is an extra challenge, with the home support and sell-out crowds (behind them), he opined. Gibson is happy with the way the young crop of West Indian bowlers, including Kemar Roach, was coming up. PTI

Skipper Dhoni does some plain-speaking

Rakesh Rao
NEW DELHI: It was just another match-eve press conference at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground but Mahendra Singh Dhoni chose to go beyond clichs. He sounded more truthful than plain diplomatic ahead of the World Cup clash against the Netherlands. We are looking for an easy game (on Wednesday). There are a few areas where we are looking to improve, especially on how to get a set batsman out. A lot has been said of our elding. I think our elding would be quite the same in the tournament. I dont see a drastic improvement in our elding. When we come to batting, we would see if we can be more consistent. He spoke frankly of tness issues with some of the players in the squad, and the overall bowling that has been a constant source of worry. A few key fast bowlers are missing. Ashish (Nehra) has been struggling when it comes to tness. Zak (Zaheer Khan) is the only one. Munaf (Patel) has come back to the side after a long time. Its a very different fast bowling attack. Just seeing if two-plus-two (two pace bowlers and two specialist spinners) works. A lot has been said of our bowling but we are showing signs of improvement and Im sure we will peak at the right time and the bowlers will denitely do their job. Hopefully we will have our best bowling attack by the time the league stage ends. On the question of playing young off-spinner R. Ashwin, Dhoni said: If our bowling

The Netherlands tness trainer Kevin van der Hor oversees the team skipper Peter Borren (left) and Tom de Grooth do their drills during the practice session. PHOTO: S. SUBRAMANIUM
does not click, he is an option. Its not that he bowls well only against left-handers. Hes a very good bowler and has done really well for us. Its just a matter of time. We just want to pick the best players, especially the bowlers. Dhoni almost ruled out the possibility of giving Suresh Raina a chance on Wednesday. Quite difcult to play Raina in the next game. In that case, we have to request Virat (Kohli), Gautam (Gambhir) or (Virender) Sehwag to take rest, which none of them would like because its their home ground. Dhonis opposite number, the Netherlands skipper Peter Borren was realistic about the teams prospects against the host and sounded optimistic ahead of the big match. Youve got to take your chances against a strong country like India. We know that Indias elding is one area we can take advantage of, he said. The Netherlands, which made an impression during the narrow loss to England in the opener, suffered two successive defeats with margins of over 200 runs and remains the only team apart from Kenya to not win a game so far in the competition. Borren said: Realistically, we need to take on the opposition. Its a big challenge. Playing these guys in their conditions is going to be a task but we will try to create a surprise. We are a good side. We need to bowl a disciplined line and do some extraordinary catching and elding.

Review system improves umpiring: ICC

NEW DELHI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) said on Monday it had issued guidelines to end controversy over the use of the Umpire Decision Review System at the World Cup but backed its use. Ian Bell was given not out when it appeared the England batsman was out lbw on review during their tied match with India, escaping because he was

a long way forward. International Cricket Council (ICC) general manager David Richardson said while there had been no change in the UDRS for when a batsman is struck more than 2.5 metres from the stumps, guidelines had been issued to umpires. The advice states that if the batsman is struck more than 2.5 metres from the stumps, the

third umpire is to advise the on-eld umpire to overturn a not out decision when some part of the ball is hitting the middle stump and the whole of the ball is hitting the stumps below the bottom of the bails. This is not a change in rules as some people have suggested but a broad guideline which we hope will bring a consistency to the decision-making, Richard-

son said. The ICC said correct decisions had risen from an average of 90.18 per cent to 97.82 per cent thanks to the use of the UDRS system. Richardson said the UDRS was working well at the World Cup. What it is demonstrating clearly is that the UDRS is helping umpires who are maintaining consistently high levels of performance. AFP
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