Fitness of Ramnaresh Sarwan and Runako Morton remains a worry for West Indies though Imran Khan, the team’s media manager, insisted that no one has been ruled out
Preview by Siddhartha Vaidyanathan in Jaipur10-Oct-2006
Dav Whatmore reckons the pitch at the Sawai Man Singh will resemble a Sri Lankan sandpit. Five out of a total of nine ODIs here have been won by teams chasing © AFP
It’s been ten years since Brian Lara played in Jaipur and things havecertainly changed at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium. Observing the face-liftat the ground, one of the journalists remembered the horror years – in the ’90s,when pressmen were locked inside the media area, to prevent fans fromforcing themselves into the zone. The door used to be opened only during thebreaks and, just in case you had the bad luck of ending up with anupset tummy, you were doomed.Going by the indications from the Rajasthan Cricket Association, nobody isgoing to be jailed tomorrow. Worryingly, there aren’t expected to be toomany people dying to get into the stadium when West Indies and Bangladeshclash to qualify for the main draw of the Champions Trophy. Bangladeshshowed a lot of promising signs in their opening game against Sri Lankabut tomorrow they’d need that and much more.Going by Dav Whatmore’s assessment, the pitch here is likely to behave like a SriLankan sandpit. “It certainly looks different than the one at Mohali. I’mnot sure of the history here – there hasn’t been a lot of history in thisoval – and I’m not sure if it will have the same amount of bounce. I’malso not sure about amount of turn in the pitch.” Of the nine ODIs here,five have been won by the team chasing, including the lastgame when Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s unbeaten 183 helped India hunt down299. A factor that would play a role tomorrow is the dew but, consideringthat it’s the first game under lights, one can only wait and watch.The toss may not matter too much for West Indies – considering the mightof their batting line-up – but it’s the fitness of their players thatremained a worry. Ramnaresh Sarwan and Runako Morton – who had suffered aviral fever in Mohali – hadn’t yet recovered while Dwayne Smith, whoincurred the same problem here, missed the net session on match eve. ImranKhan, the media manager, stressed that none of them had been ruled out,adding that missing the nets is no indication of availability for thematch. Bangladesh used three left-arm spinners in the previous game andthey could serve them well if the track starts to take some turn tomorrow.
‘If you play against a team lower ranked than yourselves, you must be able to give yourself a handicap’ says Brian Lara while hoping for an emphatic win over Bangladesh © Getty Images
Not only do West Indies need to win but also need to do so emphatically.Well, finishing the game even before the lights came on – as they didwhile whipping Zimbabwe at Ahmedabad – might have been stretching it toofar but Lara reiterated the need to win with handicaps. “If you playagainst a team lower ranked than yourselves, you must be able to giveyourself a handicap,” he added. “Bangladesh can play very good cricket butit’s important that we win emphatically, it’s important that we put thedistance between them and us. It’s not about chasing down a target in acertain number of overs or anything, just that you would know when you’reforcing yourself on the opposition. That’s what we’re looking to dotomorrow.”But is anyone going to watch? The Rajasthan Cricket Association decided toprovide an incentive for viewers. They sold three tickets in combination,for the two qualifying games along with the India-England game, and pricedit at the same rate as one (almost equivalent to buy one, get two free).Unfortunately it didn’t work and they finally began selling India-Englandsingle tickets today, which ended up being lapped up like hot cakes. Thereseems to be only one solution to eliminate the risk of empty stands. Turnback the clock, replace pressmen with public and lock them inside thestadium for a day. And just to cover all bases, don’t even provide thebreak for lunch.Teams (probable)1 Chris Gayle, 2 Shivnarine Chanderpaul, 3 Runako Morton, 4 Brian Lara(capt), 5 Ramnaresh Sarwan (vice-cap) 6 Dwayne Bravo, 7 Marlon Samuels, 8Wavell Hinds, 9 Carlton Baugh (wk), 10 IDR Bradshaw, 11 Jerome Taylor.1 Shahriar Nafees, 2 Mohammad Ashraful, 3Aftab Ahmed, 4 Saqibul Hasan, 5Habibul Bashar (capt), 6 Farhad Reza, 7 Khaled Mashud (wk), 8 MohammadRafique, 9 Mashrafe Mortaza, 10 Abdur Razzak, 11 Syed Rasel.