November 12 Tuesday 2002
Rain adds to India's woes ahead of one-dayer

RAJKOT, India: Unseasonal rain washed out India's final preparations Monday ahead of the crucial third one-day international against the buoyant West Indies, when the home side will be looking to halt a run of two straight defeats. 

Sourav Ganguly's home side, beaten in the first two matches, need a win on Tuesday to have a realistic chance of keeping their hopes alive in the seven-game series.

Heavy early morning rain washed away the practice session for both teams on Monday. The skies cleared by afternoon, but the ground was too wet to allow the players even light training. "The teams obviously do not want to have injuries before an important match," said organiser Niranjan Shah, a former secretary of the Indian cricket board.

India, who won the Test series 2-0, have struggled to forge a winning team in the absence of star batsman Sachin Tendulkar and seamer Zaheer Khan, both of whom were rested for the series due to niggles.

The bowling, specially the spinners, appears to be a major worry after the West Indians sucessfully chased 283 in the first one-dayer at Jamshedpur and 279 in the second at Nagpur. West Indian captain Carl Hooper rubbed the point in, saying his counterpart Ganguly must have a "headache" because of the failure of frontline spinners Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh to stem the run-rate.

"The worry for the Indians is that not only these fine bowlers have failed to take wickets, they have also gone for runs," Hooper wrote in his column for the Press Trust of India. 

"They are the leading Indian bowlers, yet have gone for five-six runs an over. It is not easy to replace them either. It is difficult to opt for such an extreme option." India may opt for all-rounder Sanjay Bangar, a useful medium-pacer, in place of either Kumble or Harbhajan, but the playing eleven will be named only after a close look at the conditions before the toss.

Hooper said he was wary of an Indian backlash in the remaining five matches and warned his team against being complacent. 

"India are good enough to come back any time," he said. "But they have played a lot of cricket in this past few months and a few of them could be jaded. "But it is no excuse for losing matches. The team needs to find its own motivation to stop a downward slide. Nobody accepts failure these days." Hooper said he was delighted to be 2-0 
up in the series. 

"We are happy at this marvellous start to the one-day series," he said. "Our batting is beginning to jell well and it would look still better when Brian Lara is back."It looks to be a good nucleus for the World Cup. Barring an injury or two, we are in the process of identifying the men we will need for the World Cup."