June 29  
England look to continue bright start

LONDON: Another stellar performance in the field will be needed if England are to continue their bright start to the NatWest Cricket Series with victory over India at Lord's on Saturday (today).

Three outstanding catches by the home side stopped Sri Lanka's big-hitters in their tracks at Trent Bridge on Thursday night as the hosts successfully defended a total of 293. And, in light of their expensive bowling in tour matches so far, India will be keen to fight fire with fire.

India's explosive batting line-up, led by Sourav Ganguly and Virender Sehwag, must be able to set about their task unencumbered by fielding heroics. In the last two of their three warm-up matches prior to this tournament-opener, a loss to Kent and a victory over Leicestershire, the tourists have conceded an aggregate 545 runs. Anil Kumble can be relied upon as a model of economy, his 10 overs at Canterbury yielded 28 runs, as Kent racked up 284 all out.

But aside from their right-arm spinner, India have a pace corps that even captain Ganguly described as inexperienced. Ajit Agarkar played for India in the 1999 World Cup in England, but Ashish Nehra, Zaheer Khan and Tinu Yohannan are all on their maiden tour to the country.

India's policy of fielding three seamers alongside Kumble, and then making up the remaining 10 overs with part-time bowlers, could also prove expensive.

Nasser Hussain and his side will be under no illusions, though, about India's own capacity to blaze big totals. Those same two tour matches brought a total of 578 runs for their star-studded line-up.

"They love playing at Lord's and their batting side, with our inexperienced bowling line-up, will be a test for us," Hussain admitted.

Sachin Tendulkar has given up his place at the top of the order to Sehwag, but remains the most devastating force in international cricket, as he proved with an 82-ball 75 against Sussex. Rahul Dravid looks likely to keep wickets to free up an extra place in the order.

Although Yuvraj Singh has so far failed to fire, Dinesh Mongia and Mohammed Kaif both have half-centuries on tour so far.

Of England's inexperienced attack at Trent Bridge, James Kirtley showed great variation at the death and Andrew Flintoff took two vital wickets as Sri Lanka were looking to up the rate in the last 10 overs. As with India, though, a gap remains in the fifth bowler slot, with Ashley Giles struggling against expert players of spin, and Paul Collingwood again expensive.

One of Collingwood's brace of wickets was opener Romesh Kaluwitharana, plucked out at toe-level by Graham Thorpe at midwicket. More of the same, will be what Hussain is asking for.