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Untitled Document
 Desperate India to play for pride against Bermuda
18th Mar 2007 18:41 IST
Agencies
Licking the wounds of a shock defeat at the hands of Bangladesh, a jittery India have their tasks cut out when they take on minnows Bermuda in a must-win Group-B World Cup league match at Queen's Park Oval, in Port of Spain, Trinidad on Monday.
The stunning five-wicket loss has pushed the Indians, who were regarded as one of the front runners by some former cricketers, on the brink of an early exit and is bound to put Rahul Dravid and his men under enormous pressure.
After weeks of preparations and claims of having acclimatised to the Caribbean conditions, it turned out to be an agonising start to India's World Cup campaign with a pathetic performance against a team, which largely comprises youngsters with very little experience in one-day internationals.
But unlike another Asian giant Pakistan, who have crashed out of the tournament with a stunning defeat against minnows Ireland, the Indians hopes are hanging by a thin thread.
The Indians not only have to win both their matches against Bermuda and Sri Lanka comprehensively but also hope that results of other matches in Group B go in their favour.
The Indians had themselves to blame for the debacle against Bangladesh as they not only misread the pitch, but came up with a horrendous batting and bowling performance to slump to a new low which has thrown their campaign in disarray.
The persistent failures of Virender Sehwag can no longer be accepted.
Sehwag opened the innings with Ganguly against Bangladesh but perished for just 2 playing an atrocious shot, which has now become a routine feature for the Delhi opener.
Instead of trying to repay the faith shown on him by skipper Dravid, a cavelier Sehwag does not seem inclined to learn from his mistakes.
The Indians badly need a good start to the innings to lay the foundation for the middle order batsmen but the continued form slump of Sehwag has not allowed that to happen.
The team management may also toy with the idea of going in with two specialist spinners in Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble, an option which appears quite possible considering the performance of the three Bangladeshi spinners.
Bermuda, the smallest country ever to qualify for the World Cup, have the only professional cricketer in David Hemp, the Glamorgan county captain.
They were out for a paltry 78 against Sri Lanka in their opening match.
Coach Gus Logie said "we've have set ourselves little goals. If we can bat out 50 overs against these teams, then that's a plus for us."
Teams (from):
India: Rahul Dravid (Capt.), Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Robin Uthappa, Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Dinesh Karthik, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, S Sreesanth, Munaf Patel.
Bermuda: Irvine Romaine (Capt.), Dean Minors, Delyone Borden, Lionel Cann, David Hemp, Kevin Hurdle, Malachi Jones, Stefan Kelly, Dwayne Leverock, Saleem Mukuddem, Steven Outerbridge, Oliver Pitcher, Clay Smith, Janeiro Tucker, Kwame Tucker. |
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