India aim to end Kiwi tour on winning note

The wicket at Jade Stadium is traditionally known to favour seamers early on and then flatten out to be a batting beauty. Both teams had a workout in the morning and gave themselves an evening off.

Hyderabad batsman VVS Laxman left for home this morning since he has been named the captain of India A side to play the tour-opener against Pakistan on January 23.

For Laxman, this touroffered little opportunity, but in the couple of innings he was afforded, Laxman left no one in doubt about his ability.

Alongwith Laxman, Sunil Joshi, Debashish Mohanty and lately Hrishikesh Kanitkar have had little role to play in the middle as the Indians were wary of experiments with the series being very tight.

A positive sign for India has been that, it as a team scored convincing victories despite Sachin Tendulkar failing to add as many runs as expected from him.

And, the newly confident Rahul Dravid has remained a pillar of strength stroking the ball well in the shorter form of the game also. The stylish Karnataka batsman, easily the man of the tour, has looked infallible after taking on the task of shouldering responsibility all through the series.

The memorable Auckland win, where most of the Indian players regained their form, should spur the visitors to go for the kill tomorrow.

If Azhar’s luck with the toss holds good — he has won six of the seven tosses on this tour — the Indianswould have won half the battle then.

Kiwis, on the other hand, are worried on injury counts. Captain Stephen Fleming has been ruled out of this series and left-arm pace bowler Geoff Allott is still to recover from hamstring strain and speedster Simon Doull, from time to time, suffers from exhaustion and stomach problems.

Still, stand-in captain Dion Nash was upbeat about his team’s prospects. “I am really looking forward to tomorrow’s game. I want to finish the series as we started it — on a winning note.”

Harris, a mercurial pinch hitter, has had problems with his usual form in this series after being asked to go in at number eight. But coach Rixon ruled out possibility of Harris being promoted in the order despite a feeling in the camp that his talent was being wasted at number eight.

“Coming down in the order and looking to capitalise in the final 10 overs, Harris probably has no rival in the world,” Rixon said justifying his decision to keep the batsman in that position. "We do not intend tochange it," he said.

TEAMS (from):

INDIA: Mohd Azharuddin (capt), Saurav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Ajay Jadeja, Robin Singh, Nikhil Chopra, Nayan Mongia (wk), Venkatesh Prasad, Javagal Srinath, Anil Kumble, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Debashish Mohanty and Sunil Joshi.

NEW ZEALAND: Dion Nash (capt), Matt Horne, Roger Twose, Bryan Young, Adam Parore (wk), Craig McMillan, Chris Cairns, Daniel Vettori, Simon Doull, Chris Harris, Chris Drum, Gavin Larsen.

Hours of play (IST): 0700 hrs to 1030 hrs and 1110 hrs to 1440 hrs.

New Zealand coach regrets remark on India

New Zealand cricket coach Steve Rixon said today that he regretted making an offensive remark about the Indian team last week, but added that he had been misunderstood.

Last week Rixon had said, “the Indians look like they’ve got one thing on their mind…And that’s the flight home.”

Speaking today, Rixon said, “I truly regret having said it, but I was misunderstood. Every team during the last daysof a tour looks forward to going home.”

Rixon’s Indian counterpart, the mild-mannered Anshuman Gaekwad, said, “at the end of the day, actions speak louder than words. Steve should stick to talking about his own team, not ours.”

Rixon had offended the Indians once before during the tour on the eve of the first Test, by saying: “you cannot win Test matches sitting in the dressing room.”

That was when the Indians declined to take up the option of playing under lights during the series when natural light was poor.

Kiwi team manager John Graham today apologised to the Indian camp and said Rixon regretted having made the comment.