India raring to become champions

India raring to become champions
VIKRANT GUPTA

NAIROBI, OCTOBER 14: After the storm on Friday, it's all quiet at the Nairobi Gymkhana. The Indians, seemingly relaxed in their shorts and track suits, have come here for a knock and the willow hitting the ball makes a sweet sound. Not far, a grassmower works, dressing up the `lawns' for the Knock-Out Mini-World Cup party on Sunday.

A billboard catches our attention: ``Final. Champs Please Excuse.'' Now, you've had it. A furious Indian skipper Saurav Ganguly walks upto the sign, smashes it down and says: ``Tomorrow, they will call us the champions.''

Pity, none of the big three, Australia, South Africa and Pakistan is standing with the final act still unplayed. There's a buzz about India now. They have beaten the best in the world and beaten them with plenty to spare. One step, just one step away, is the Renaissance of Indian cricket, despaired fans back home thought could never happen.

If India beat New Zealand in the final, it will be their most satisfying win after the '85 Benson Hedges World Championship, taking out the '93 Hero Cup victory, which lost sheen coming on tampered Indian wickets. Only after this win will, Ganguly, the King of India, dubbed a delinquent Prince of Calcutta not long ago, be known as the leader of the 'best team in the world'. There is another man who bats the same way Ganguly does, fluent and left-handed, and who has been motivating his teammates just like the Indian skipper.

Stephen Fleming, his usual laconic self, has been watching the meteoric Indian rise but thinks another, this time a bigger hurrah from his players. They have never won a tournament of this stature so Fleming's Kiwi Black Caps have a chance to turn their cricketing history upside down.

Lost in the din of the Indian revival is the way the Kiwis have worked their way up here. Of course, beating Zimbabwe was not so difficult but it was the ease with which they shocked Pakistan that makes Ganguly tell his team "not to get complacent".

``The New Zealanders have been playing well, so they are here. We don't want a situation where we get complacent and undo all our good work. It's a matter of one game and we have to keep our focus going. The boys are keen and each one of them knows what a championship win means,'' Ganguly emphasised.

Even without Chris Cairns, the Kiwis have been chipping in with their mite and when it all adds up, it looks pretty awesome. Roger Twose and Craig McMillan have good batting records against India but Nathan Astle and Chris Harris look more daunting. The Kiwis also have two men who bowl left-arm seam with the new ball, Shayne O'Connor and Geoff Allot, and the Indian batsmen know they are yet to master bowlers who bowl that way.

Again, as in the games against Kenya, Australia and South Africa it's India's youth brigade which the rivals will be wary of. Both Ganguly and his deputy Rahul Dravid have peeled off good scores in the tournament, and Sachin Tendulkar looks very threatening with his new slam-bang-out approach but it's Yuvraj Singh's don't-mess-with-me attitude which has spurned his teammates. The way the Chandigarh left-hander took on the South African pacer Allan Donald re-affirmed the belief that Yuvraj is a star in the making. His skipper was raving about his batting, spin bowling and fielding and wanted to know whether he could hit the ball as hard with the right hand too!

The Indian batting is well-suited to the small ground here but bowling is still the weak link, despite the bowlers' not letting the Aussies and South African batsmen get anywhere near the totals the Indian batsmen had put on board. The new left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan has been clocking good numbers on the speed-check gun besides getting wickets and Anil Kumble is as teasing as ever but Venkatesh Prasad and Ajit Agarkar haven't been as consistent. If Agarkar went for runs against Australia, it was Prasad who the South Africans went after. The lack of a quality fifth bolwer can sometimes spoil any team's happiness and the Indians don't want that to happen to them on Sunday. For, Sunday is no ordinary day.

Teams
INDIA (from): Saurav Ganguly (capt), Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Vinod Kambli, Robin Singh, Vijay Dahiya, Ajit Agarkar, Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan, Venkatesh Prasad, Sunil Joshi, Sridharan Sriram and Hemang Badani.

NEW ZEALAND (from): Stephen Fleming (capt), Nathan Astle, Chris Nevin, Roger Twose, Chris Cairns, Craig McMillan, Chris Harris, Shayne O'Connor, Scott Styris, Daniel Vettori, Geoff Allott, Paul Wiseman, Adam Parore and Craig Spearman.

Umpires: David Shepherd and Steve Bucknor.
Third umpire: Darrell Hair
Hours of play: 12.15 p.m. to 3.45 and 4.30 to 8 p.m.