In the middle of a forest area, with panthers lurking in the neighboring jungles, India and Sri Lanka will hope for a rampaging finish to their World Cup preparations
The Preview by Siddhartha Vaidyanathan in Visakhapatnam16-Feb-2007
Will Sri Lanka avenge their humiliating 6-1 loss in 2005? © GNN photo
Sometime this morning, while driving along the Chennai-Kolkata highway tomake his way to the quite magnificent stadium on the outskirts ofVisakhapatnam, Rahul Dravid might have been reminded of the Caribbeanisland of St Lucia. The thought might not have occurred with regard to theWorld Cup – India’s first aim, as Dravid himself has admitted, is to getto the semi-final, with St Lucia one of the possible venues – but becauseof how similar the ACA-VDCA Stadium is to the Beausejour in Gros Islet.Set amid the scenic hills 11 kilometres away from the main city, sportinga revamped look that can put any Indian Test venue in the shade, with aname straight out of Nordic myth, the ACA-VDCA Stadium [Andhra CricketAssociation – Visakhapatnam District Cricket Association] is a sight tosavour. The grass isn’t just lush, it’s sparkling; the stands have asprinkling of freshness about them and the facilities, for players, fansand the media, are in place. In the middle of a forest area, with pantherslurking in the neighboring jungles, India and Sri Lanka will hope for arampaging finish to their World Cup preparations.Who will, who won’t?India are already without Sachin Tendulkar (resting with a stiff back)and have left out Anil Kumble and Sreesanth from the final 12. It maycome down to a choice between Irfan Pathan – who simply to getsome match practice under his belt – and Dinesh Karthik. “Pathan hasreally come through,” said Dravid at the pre-match press conference. “Hehas bowled full tilt at nets today to a couple of batsmen. But we willdecide about his chances of playing tomorrow’s game after viewing him inthe morning practice session. Whatever we have seen at the nets today wasgood.”India have three openers to choose from – Dravid was slightly amused whenasked about the specialist opener, the opener in form, and the other whoeveryone wants to see opening. Having clarified who was what – SouravGanguly, Robin Uthappa and Virender Sehwag – he suggested that one of themwould bat at No.3.Mahela Jayawardene said his side didn’t have any injury worries. Wouldthey, like India have done with Tendulkar, be resting any of their keyplayers for this final game? Tom Moody, the coach, shot back coolly: “Wealready have a couple of them (Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas)resting in Colombo.”World Cup build-upHow much of an effect will this match, and series even, have on India vSri Lanka on March 23 at Trinidad? Does winning a series in India have anyconnection with the first round of the World Cup? No says Greg Chappell, the India coach (“This will be forgotten by the time we get there”), no says Jayawardene(“Different venue, different country, different conditions”), and no saysDravid (“The World Cup is in the back of our mind but the immediatepriority is to win the game and series”).Sri Lanka haven’t yet announced their 12 but one would think they wouldwant to fine-tune their combination for the World Cup. Jayawardene hasn’tcrossed 50 in 16 innings (since June 2006) and Upul Tharanga hasn’t yetfired in this series. They’d dearly like to pull off a win tomorrow as aseries triumph without Vaas and Murali would be quite an achievement,especially after having been walloped 6-1 against a full-strength Indian side in2005.Dravid’s proud recordDravid is yet to lose a bilateral series at home. Starting from October2005, when he took over the reins, he’s triumphed against Sri Lanka (bothone-dayers and Tests), England (one-dayers) and West Indies (one-dayers).Apart from these, he’s drawn series against South Africa (one-dayers) andEngland (Tests). No points for guessing his first priority tomorrow. TheWorld Cup can wait.TeamsIndia (likely) 1 Sourav Ganguly, 2 Virender Sehwag, 3 RobinUthappa, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Rahul Dravid (capt), 6 Dinesh Karthik, 7Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), 8 Ajit Agarkar, 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 ZaheerKhan, 11 Munaf Patel.Sri Lanka (likely) 1 Sanath Jayasuriya, 2 Upul Tharanga, 3 MahelaJayawardene (capt), 4 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 5 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 6Russel Arnold, 7 Farveez Maharoof, 8 Nuwan Kulasekera, 9 Malinga Bandara,10 Lasith Malinga, 11 Dilhara Fernando