For Ganguly, the glass is half-full

True that the NatWest Challenge was already lost and there was very little at stake. But if you belong to the club that always finds the glass half full then it calls for celebration that, after almost an epoch, the Indian bowlers won a one-day match defending a paltry total of 204.

Add to that the Cricket Oscars which were swept by Indians and the team has plenty to cheer them up after a forgettable four weeks. The batting hasn’t come together yet but the much-needed break has given the team enough time to recalibrate its game plan and get some things back on track.

For starters, as coach John Wright points out, sorting out the batting order. As expected, Virender Sehwag will be back at the top of the order though it would make more sense to ask VVS Laxman to open the innings. With a 10.15 morning start and a fresh white ball, Laxman would be the ideal foil for Ganguly to blunt the opening bowling spells and watch against the fall of early wickets.

Contrary to popular belief that Laxman is in woeful form with a string of bad scores against his name, the Hyderabadi batsmen believes that he is in top form and predicts a tall score is around the corner.

‘‘I am middling the ball well and getting into the thirties before getting out but I know that it is only a matter of time’’, he says. The last time Laxman said that he got five one-day centuries in a single year and Ganguly would probably hope for an encore.

Ganguly believes that the toss would hardly have a role to play in the tournament except to get matches started. ‘‘Winning the toss is not that important because the wickets basically have been good. It doesn’t make that much of a difference batting first or bowling first. To be honest in the three one-day games we played in the NatWest Challenge, I don’t think it made any difference’’, he said.

It is a departure from the belief here that chasing sides will have the upper hand in the tournament. Top-ranked bowler Steve Harmison said that batting early in the morning would be the biggest challenge and chasing would be the safer option. The results in this tournament will be decided in the last fifteen overs of the match and it could be fascinating to see Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh bat together down the order and finish games off.

With Mohammad Kaif — the lone batsmen in top form — at number three, Rahul Dravid at four and Sehwag at five with Yuvraj Singh to follow at six, the Indian batting line-up seems more organised.

When in form Sehwag fears no bowler but when this reporter asked him the same question before the Champions Trophy he said that in the form that he was every bowler looked dangerous. Sehwag has been advised to bat like he would in Tests by the team management; if only someone could reveal what that means because, barring the colour of his jersey, there is little that differentiates the two Sehwags.

The mention of the Kenyan team these days occupies more space than usual. The tag of world cup semi-finalists follows them everywhere they go and it works well for them.

Kenyan skipper Steve Tikolo told The Indian Express that opponents come hard at them because they know what his team is capable of now.

Taking on India, Kenya sound quietly confident having had a measure of this team in the world cup last year and having defeated them three years ago in 2001 in the South African city of Port Elizabeth.

For the Indian cricketers who believe Kenya will be pushovers, John Wright should hold a special screening of the Port Elizabeth match.

Those who don’t should probably be facing the bowling machine a tad longer.