**Commonwealth Bank Series House** - Page 2

I support both the teams 😃 .. i have always admire aussies and sri lankans..i think they are the best teams at this point of time... Goodluck to both of them.. 😳

Australia won by 128 runs!!!...congrats to them 👏

India v Sri Lanka, 11th ODI, CB Series, Hobart

Selection dilemmas ahead of crunch clash

The Preview by Nagraj Gollapudi in Hobart

February 25, 2008



Looking to the skies: India need their high-profile openers to score some runs Getty Images




It's a face-off that both India and Sri Lanka could have avoided, but they have only themselves to blame for turning their final encounter of the CB Series into a virtual semi-final. Despite holding the edge on at least one occasion against Australia, both teams would envy Ricky Ponting's men letting their hair down at tomorrow's Allan Border medal while they get into a dogfight at the Bellerive Oval.

Such has been the nature of this series so far that, apart from Australia, no team has consistently capitalised on the weaknesses of the opponents. In the three previous games between the two teams, India and Sri Lanka have one victory each while their first encounter of the series, in Brisbane, was abandoned due to rain. Sri Lanka stand on the precipice and to pull themselves back they need to defeat India and then repeat that result against Australia on Friday. India, meanwhile, will seal their berth in the final if they win on Tuesday.

"We wouldn't like to wait for the result on February 29," Mahendra Singh Dhoni said. "We would like to seal the match against Sri Lanka and not leave it to the last game between Australia and Sri Lanka. This game is very important for us." The Indian captain has already alerted his troops about the task, terming Sri Lanka "very tricky" opponents.

Sri Lanka have the advantage of having played at this venue twice this season. They lost a Test here in November and then Tasmania slapped a seven-wicket defeat on them in the practice game ahead of the tri-series. "The Test-match wicket was much harder compared to the practice match that was played on a different one, but we have a fair idea of the wicket. It depends on the conditions, which can be overcast here sometimes, so we'll wait and see," Mahela Jayawardene, Sri Lanka's captain, said after a net session.

The conditions played a huge role in the last one-day match at the ground, when Tasmania won a closely fought encounter on Saturday to lift the Ford Ranger Cup by one wicket after rain interruptions converted Victoria's original target of 158 to 131 in 31 overs. The forecast for Tuesday is mostly sunny with temperatures in the range of 20C. The wicket at the Bellerive Oval is likely to offer significant sideways movement, which could be a key factor for both captains when they sit down to choose their final XIs.

Dhoni already has a couple of issues to tackle, one of which is the failure of his opening pair, Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag. One option could be to push Robin Uthappa, who scored a 46-ball 51 down the order on Sunday against Australia, ahead of Sehwag. Dhoni doesn't want to disturb an in-form Gautam Gambhir's fine run at No.3 but felt he had enough options to choose from.

The other matter is that of fatigue. Players like Dhoni and Ishant Sharma have been playing non-stop from the start of the Test series and India's inability to qualify for the finals means these two have had no time to rest. "It's tough on guys like Ishant and Gautam but we have some time to recover and we need them," was Dhoni's response to whether a 36-hour break was enough for the team to bounce back after yesterday's game against Australia.

Without any indication of the combination he will opt for, Jayawardene's focus was on tomorrow and not too far down the road. "We have to win both the games. If we get our batting sorted out, we have a very good chance," he said. "We need to concentrate first on getting the victory on Tuesday."

Both teams have their share of top-order batting concerns and there's an outside chance, given the Hobart conditions, that they both go in with five bowlers. If Munaf Patel recovers from a bout of food poisoning suffered on Saturday he might just sneak into the Indian XI.

Teams
India: (likely) 1 Robin Uthappa, 2 Sachin Tendulkar, 3 Gautam Gambhir, 4 Rohit Sharma, 5 Mahendra Singh Dhoni, 6 Yuvraj Singh, 7 Irfan Pathan, 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Sreesanth, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Munaf Patel.

Sri Lanka: (likely)1 Sanath Jayasuriya, 2 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 4 Mahela Jayawardene (caot), 6 Chamara Silva 7 Chamara Kapugedera, 8 Farvez Maharoof, 9 Chaminda Vaas, 10 Muttiah Muralitharan, 11 Ishara Amerasinghe.

Nagraj Gollapudi is an assistant editor at Cricinfo

Cricinfo

Nielsen backs his team's behaviour

India should 'worry about themselves'

Brydon Coverdale

February 25, 2008

The Australians are the only ones into the CB Series finals at this stage and their coach Tim Nielsen believes their opponents should focus on their own backyard Getty Images

Australia's coach Tim Nielsen says India should stop concerning themselves with Australia's behaviour and focus on their own performance as they try to secure a spot against the hosts in the CB Series finals. Following a controversial Test series there was further tension between the teams in their Sydney clash on Sunday when Ishant Sharma gave Andrew Symonds a send-off after dismissing him for 59.

Ishant was fined 15% of his match fee for the incident and India's team management has sent a letter to the match referee about what it considers to be Australia's players provoking their opponents. Nielsen said he had no problem with the way his players were acting on the field.

"It's interesting how much the opposition teams are talking about what we're doing and at the moment as far as I can see we're the only team that's in the finals," Nielsen said in Melbourne as the team gathered ahead of Tuesday's Allan Border Medal. "It might be time for them to start looking in their own backyard.

"While they're worrying about us it's a good sign. We're the only ones at the moment that are confirmed in the finals and until they have their battle on Tuesday then front up on Friday, Sri Lanka against us, we won't know who our opposition is. So they've got plenty to worry about themselves."

Nielsen said Ishant's actions - he pointed Symonds back to the dressing-room - were understandable given the pressure of the situation and he hopes India retain their fiery, spirited style of play. However, he wants players from both teams to ensure they do not cross the line if they meet in the finals; India will secure a place in the deciders if they beat Sri Lanka in Hobart on Tuesday.

"It's a difficult one because there is so much emotion going on," Nielsen said. "[Ishant] was under pressure, Andrew was batting so well with Ricky [Ponting] that it's hard to take the adrenaline and emotion of the game at this level.

"We want to play good, strong competitive cricket and we encourage them to keep doing it. We'll do it as long as we all stay within the guidelines of it. You can't start taking into account it's been a tough, hard series and then give people some leeway because of it. We know where the line in the sand is."

Brydon Coverdale is a staff writer at Cricinfo

Cricinfo

Woooh!😕...now thats harsh.. but in a way he is right... India shud let thier performance do the talking.. and let the aussies to do wutever they like..