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Asia Cup - 2004
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Asia Cup - 2004
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Competition hots up in Asia
Cup
COLOMBO: Competition in the Asia Cup will hot up from Wednesday when
the second round matches, including Sunday's India-Pakistan
encounter, begin at two venues in Colombo.
Four-time winners India, defending champion Pakistan, Sri Lanka, who
won the title in 1986 and 1997, and Bangladesh will all play a total
of six matches against each other before the two teams with the
maximum points advance to the August 1 final at the R Premadasa
Stadium.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Hong Kong, the other two teams
that took part in the competition, have gone home after failing to
earn a single point.
Pakistan, who emerged with the highest points tally of 12, and
Bangladesh (six) progressed from Group A, while Sri Lanka (11 pts)
and India (7 pts) qualified from Group B.
Except for the India-Bangladesh match, a day game at the Sinhalese
Sports Club Stadium (SSC), all other matches in the tournament will
be day-night affairs and will take place at the Premadasa Stadium.
Although Pakistan and Sri Lanka were the only teams in the first
round to remain unbeaten, the real judgement of the teams is
expected to be made in the second round where, barring Bangladesh,
all other teams are of almost equal standing.
Left-arm fast bowler Zaheer Khan's injury has caused India some
problem and if he does not play against Bangladesh Wednesday, left-armer
Ashish Nehra, who has not played in the tournament so far, or
off-spinner Harbhajan Singh are expected to be drafted into the
playing XI.
Zaheer ran in and bowled at half pace due to what is being
speculated as a "thigh strain" as there is no official statement
from either captain Sourav Ganguly, coach John Wright or
physiotherapist Andrew Leipus.
Harbhajan, who has been out of the team for over seven months due to
a split webbing between the index and middle fingers of his right
hand, is now fit and, as Ganguly said a few days ago, could find a
place in the XI if the team comes across a dry pitch.
Since the Bangladesh match is a day affair and if it does not rain,
like it did on Tuesday morning, the Punjab spinner could well play
his first international match since the tour of Australia last year.
After a long time the Indian team is at full strength and is on a
high following their successful tour of Pakistan in March-April.
The organisers have for the first time kept a reserve day for each
of the second round matches and the final.
The total prize money on offer is $180,000, up from $40,000 in 2000,
when the last edition was held at Dhaka.
The winners will take home $60,000 and the runners-up $40,000. A win
in the first round had earned a team $3,000 and this will go up to
$7,000 in the second round. Winners of the man of the match award
will receive $1,000 for the rest of the matches, including the
final.
Indian players have happy memories of their last visit to Sri Lanka
in 2002, when they finished joint winners in the Champions Trophy.
They will only be hoping that this time it dos not rain, as it did
in September 2002, when the replayed final was also washed out.
This time, however, there is a reserve day for the final.
Teams:
India: Sourav Ganguly (captain), Rahul Dravid (vice-captain), Sachin
Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Mohd Kaif,
Parthiv Patel (wicketkeeper), Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer
Khan, L Balaji, Irfan Pathan and A Nehra.
Pakistan: Inzamam-ul-Haq (captain) Imran Farhat, Yasir Hameed,
Shoaib Malik, Yousuf Youhana, Moin Khan (wicketkeeper), Younis Khan,
Mohammad Sami, Shabbir Ahmed, Shoaib Akhtar, Imran Nazir, Danish
Kaneria and Naved-ul-Hasan.
Sri Lanka: Marvan Atapattu (captain), Mahela Jayawardene, Sanath
Jayasuriya, Saman Jayantha, Kumar Sangakkara (wicket-keeper), T.M.
Dilshan, Thilina Kandamby, Upul Chandana, Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Zoysa,
Muttiah Muralitharan, Lasith Malinga, Farveez Maharoof and Avishka
Gunawardene.
Bangladesh: Habibul Bashar (captain), Javed Omar, Rajin Saleh,
Faisal Hossain, Mohammad Ashraful, Alok Kapali, Mushfiqur Rahman,
Khaled Mahmud, Khaled Mashud (wicket-keeper), Mohammad Rafique,
Manjural Islam Rana, Tapash Baisya, Tareq Aziz and Abdur Razzaq.
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