India will be lucky to clear the first hurdle

Former Indian women’s cricket captain and Arjuna awardee, Diana Eduljee, on why India will be lucky to even qualify for the Super Six.

ON INDIA’S CHANCES

Everyone is talking about India winning the World Cup. I don’t think so. I think at this stage India will be lucky to qualify for the Super Six. Let’s look at the facts. I don’t think we will win against Australia, against England our chances are 50/50 and with Pakistan it all depends on the day.

WHAT INDIA NEED TO DO

The key for India to reach the second stage or beyond it, is to take each match as it comes. While we should forget the New Zealand tour, it is very important that we score a lot of runs in our initial matches against the minnows – Holland and Namibia – to get our confidence back The second thing to do is to be much more flexible with the batting order.

THEIR BIGGEST THREAT
Australia

The biggest threat for India is the opening pair of Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden. These two Aussie batsmen are virtually flawless. The only thing to be done to counter Gilchrist is to bowl a tight line. In the past he has been out edging on to his stumps. So the thing is to get Zaheer Khan bring the ball back into Gilchrist early in his innings. But it’s going to be very difficult. The Australian bowling is not much of a problem. Warne has admitted that India gives him nightmares and McGrath’s performance depends on how well he recovers from injury. But the bowler to watch out for will be Brett Lee.

SOUTH AFRICA

Bowling wise, Allan Donald is a spent force, Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini are negotiable. I think the biggest threat to India comes from the South African batsmen. The two to watch out for are Jacques Kallis and Jonty Rhodes. Rhodes in particular is deadly because of his unorthodox style. His reverse sweep is as good as any of his other strokes. So even a leg side field won’t work. The thing to do here is to contain him with spin and set an orthodox field. Rhodes has shown vulnerability under such circumstances. Since Kallis comes earlier in the innings, I would use pace, but the important thing here is to field like tigers.

SRI LANKA

From Sri Lanka as always it is Muttiah Muralitharan, who is the one to watch out for. There is no sure fire technique against Murali but the Indians should try and attack him early. This was a ploy batsmen used against Anil Kumble at the beginning of his spell to upset his line and length, and at times it has worked. The same may well be true here.

ENGLAND

From England I think Alec Stewart is the man to contain. Why do I say that? Well, the thing with England is even if Marcus Trescothick and Michael Vaughan get England off to a flying start, there is often a middle order collapse with Stewart holding up the innings. Stewart is a slow starter, so the Indian bowlers should exploit his early jitters.

PAKISTAN

It is futile discussing strategy against Pakistan since they are so unpredictable. As for Shoaib Akhtar, I think he’s more of a javelin thrower than a bowler.

— As told to Ashwin Ahmad