da bwin： It’s not often that Zimbabwe begin a triangular One-Day tournament asfavourites
Anand Vasu22-Jun-2001It’s not often that Zimbabwe begin a triangular One-Day tournament asfavourites. However, when the home side takes on West Indies in thefirst clash of the Coca Cola Cup at Harare on Saturday, that iscertainly the position they find themselves in. Carl Hooper’s WestIndians have done little in the recent past to inspire confidence.Losing by seven wickets to Zimbabwe County Districts in a practiceone-dayer, the men from the Caribbean need to pull up their socks in ahurry. The third team in the tournament, India will not be on much ofa high after their Test loss to Zimbabwe not one week ago.With all factors pointing towards Zimbabwe being the favourites, onebit of news pushes the hosts back. Andy Flower, undoubtedly Zimbabwe’sbest batsman, dislocated a finger while keeping wickets in the secondTest and has been ruled out of the tournament. While this is a blow tothe home side, the rapid emergence of players like Andy Blignaut atthe highest level augurs well. Young stumper Tatenda Taibu will takeFlower’s place.The Indian squad for the limited overs games has been strengthened bythe addition of four sets of fresh legs in Virender Sehwag, ReetinderSodhi, Dinesh Mongia and Harvinder Singh. Although initially slated toreturn home after the Tests, Ashish Nehra has done enough in the Teststo be retained for the tournament. Mongia, preferred over theexplosive yet less than consistent Yuvraj Singh bolsters a battingline-up that is already packed. While skipper Sourav Ganguly hasstruggled in the Tests, the southpaw has had no such problem in theshorter version of the game. Still averaging almost 45 in one-dayers,Ganguly seems to relish opening the batting with the fieldrestrictions encouraging stroke making.The line up for India is predictable, with only the bowling spots upfor grabs. Sachin Tendulkar, Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid,Virender Sehwag and Hemang Badani are likely to make up the top order.Sameer Dighe is the only keeper on tour and he is sure to don thegloves. Of the four remaining spots one goes almost by default toHarbhajan Singh. This leaves Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Ajit Agarkar,Debashish Mohanty and Harvinder Singh fighting for the three bowlingslots left. Sodhi, with his promise as an all rounder also has anoutside chance of making the final eleven.But enough about India. One must dwell a bit with the home side. Thevictory over India in the second Test is a confidence booster likenever before for several reasons. Although many factors contributed tothe triumph, the fighting qualities shown by the home team’s fightingspirit was certainly one of the most important. Unlike their recentvictory over minnows Bangladesh, the recent victory over India washard fought. The Indians contributed to their own downfall by someloose cricket and yet it was the unflagging efforts of the Zimbabwemedium pacers Heath Streak and Andy Blignaut, who picked up 13 wicketsbetween them that drove the final nails into the Indian coffin. Thepatient yet solid unbeaten 62 from Stuart Carlisle too cannot beunderestimated.In short, this is a highly competitive and indeed organised Zimbabweside. And that cannot be said of both their opponents. While thereturn of Shivnarine Chanderpaul after injury lends some solidity tothe West Indian team, they are unlikely to give anyone a run for theirmoney till their big guns Carl Hooper and Brian Lara come up withstrong performances more consistently. The bowling department toolooks suspiciously unreliable with only Merv Dillon and Reon Kinginspiring any confidence.Ultimately, the Coca-Cola Cup will go to the team which shows mostspirit.