Sachin’s B-Day, India’s D-Day

It has been a long victory drought for India at this desert venue, having lost six of their last seven matches here. Having edged out New Zealand on net run-rate for a place in the final, the Indians will now be hoping that things will click well to enable them to overcome the Australians.

While India has struggled right through the league phase of the tournament, losing three matches and winning only one against New Zealand, Australia have won all their four matches.

But then, the Indians have the example of Australia, who were outplayed in the recent Pepsi Cup Triangular Series in India but went on to win the final by beatingIndia.

In fact, Tendulkar said as much last night when, after receiving the Man of the Match award, he commented: “I hope what happened in India happens here.”

India did not win any of their three matches in the league phase during the last tournament here in December and have lost three of their four matches in the current series.

Young paceman Ajit Agarkar, whose absence in the last three matches due to groin trouble has really depleted the Indian attack, is likely to be back. He bowled at the nets without discomfort, according to team doctor Ravinder Chadha.

Barring Saurav Ganguly, whose century in the first league tie against New Zealand gave India their lone league victory, none of the others have shown the form they had during the Pepsi Cup series at home. Mohammed Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja, who had scored heavily in the previous series, have looked out of sorts.

The Indian attack, barring seasoned leg-spinner Anil Kumble, was carted all over the place yesterday by the Aussie batsmen.India will also have to be more sharp in their fielding if they have to ensure that they do not have relive last year’s Sharjah nightmare.

TeamsIndia (from): Mohammed Azharuddin (captain), Ajay Jadeja, Sachin Tendulkar, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Saurav Ganguly, Nayan Mongia, Anil Kumble, Venkatesh Prasad, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Harvinder Singh, Rahul Sanghvi, Harbhajan Singh, VVS Laxman and Ajit Agarkar.

Australia (from): Steve Waugh (captain), Mark Waugh, Shane Warne, Michael Bevan, Damien Fleming, Darren Lehmann, Adam Gilchrist, Michael Kasprowicz, Damien Martyn, Tom Moody, Ricky Ponting, Gavin Robertson, Adam Dale and Ian Harvey.

Umpires: Javed Akhtar (Pakistan) and Steve Bucknor (West Indies)

Third umpire: Ian Robinson (Zimbabwe).

Match referee: Talat Ali (Pakistan)

Hours of play (IST): 1630 hours onwards; 2040 hours onwards.