|
 With the kind of form they are in and their star batsman Sachin Tendulkar sidelined for at least one more match due to injury, the Indians would be needing something close to a miracle to prevent New Zealand from wrapping up the series in the fourth one-day international here tomorrow. Having been beaten squarely in the first three games of this seven-match series following the 2-0 whitewash in the Tests, the Indians are left with the difficult task of winning all the four remaining matches to win the series.
It's a desperate situation calling for some extra-ordinary steps and skipper Sourav Ganguly said for a start his team was aiming at batting their full quota of 50 overs tomorrow. "We are planning to change our approach. We have not lasted 50 overs and perhaps 150 could be a winning total," he said after looking at another extremely green wicket at the John Davies Oval here which is hosting its first one-day international. The Indians have been bowled out inside their quota of 50 overs in each of the three games so far and their cause has not been helped at all by the continued absence of Tendulkar who is all set to miss tomorrow's match too due to the injury in the right ankle he suffered before the start of this series.
The Indians have been in New Zealand for a month now and their best result so far has been a drawn three-day encounter against the central districts ahead of the Test series. Ganguly admitted there was pressure on his team to turn things around tomorrow. "Its four straight games now and obviously there is pressure on the team to do well. There is pressure on every player as none of us has fired on this tour. And its a big day tomorrow.
"It has happened in the last one year (winning four games in a row). I hope we do it this time but its going to be hard," he said. With Dinesh Mongia, who joined the team yesterday, still to recover from jet lag and unlikely for tomorrow's game, the Indians will most probably go in with the same eleven that played in the previous match at Christchurch.
After a day's off yesterday when the tourists went sightseeing, the team was back to business this morning putting in hard work at the nets. Ganguly and Mongia had more than one stint in the nets while Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan and Anil Kumble had extended batting practice. The pitch here is full of grass and despite claims to the contrary by the groundsmen, the Indians are convinced the wicket is no different from the ones they have played on earlier on this tour.
|
