India ready for West Indies, praying for Pakistan

By Rahul Bajaj
for Cricketain.com

Published: September 30, 2009

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Johannesburg: India will take on West Indies in a must-win match but they would also be praying for arch-rivals Pakistan to do them a favour by beating Australia in their final Group A match of the Champions Trophy.

If India are to make it to the final four teams of the tournament, they will have to beat West Indies convincingly and also hope that Pakistan beats Australia in their match. India needs to up their net run rate dramatically besides winning the match. India presently have a run rate of -1.08 while Australia’s net run rate is +1.00 which is a huge advantage in favour of the Aussies.

Australia won their opening game by 50 runs against the West Indies and India lost theirs by 54 runs against Pakistan. So, in order to go past Australia’s run rate, India have to cover the difference of 104 runs. For instance, if Australia lose their game by 25 runs, India need to win theirs against the West Indies by 80 runs to prevail and go through to the semi-finals. However, if Australia bats first and scores 250 runs, India need to get their runs inside 40 overs for them to go through.

Obviously, these complications before a big match don’t do the confidence of the players any good. And West Indies have already shown that despite the fact that they don’t have their top players in the team, they are no pushovers.

In their first game against Pakistan, they did get bowled out for a modest total of 133 but then came back to leave Pakistan tottering at 76 for 5 before youngster Umar Akmal bailed Pakistan out with a gutsy innings. Even in their second match against Australia, they had the defending champs on the back foot while bowling and then later on batted beyond expectations to give the Aussies a real scare. Their bowling department has gelled very well till now and they would be expecting to upset the Indians at the Wanderers.

The Indian team could go unchanged despite the fact that having five bowlers did little to stop the Aussies from notching up 234 runs in 42 overs. Although it may not come as a surprise if the lanky pacer, Ishant Sharma, is rested for the match since he has been low on confidence and has been going through a rough patch lately. The Indian batting line-up hasn’t done too badly and despite missing the likes of Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag, they shouldn’t find it tough to negotiate what is essentially a second-string bowling attack.

Teams (from):

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (C), Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh, Dinesh Karthik, Virat Kohli, Praveen Kumar, Amit Mishra, Abhishek Nayar, Ashish Nehra, Yusuf Pathan, Suresh Raina, Ishant Sharma, RP Singh.

West Indies: Floyd Reifer (C), Darren Sammy, David Bernard, Tino Best, Royston Crandon, Travis Dowlin, Andre Fletcher, Kevin McClean, Nikita Miller, Kieran Powell, Dale Richards, Kemar Roach, Devon Smith, Gavin Tonge, Chadwick Walton, Daren Powell.

Match starts at 6 pm IST.

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