Clear thinking Azhar plans ahead (16 May 1999)
LONDON - As India head for Leicester and their second World Cup match, their canny skipper, Mohammad Azharuddin, is not at all put out by losing to South Africa at Hove on Saturday
16-May-1999
16 May 1999
Clear thinking Azhar plans ahead
Trevor Chesterfield
LONDON - As India head for Leicester and their second World Cup match,
their canny skipper, Mohammad Azharuddin, is not at all put out by
losing to South Africa at Hove on Saturday.
Naturally he is disappointed that India had lost with 16 balls of
their Group A match remaining, but as he pointed out, there are still
four more matches remaining in their pool.
'There was no disgrace in losing to South Africa the way we did here,'
he said as if chastising the Indian media for querying his
decisions. 'I'm happy the way we kept pace with the favourites during
the day,' he said, agreeing that India needed at least 20 more runs to
have put pressure on South Africa.
'Now we have to look forward and plan for the next match and work on
our plans,' he said, acknowledging there were a couple of areas when
the team's game plan needs to improve.
At 116 for four in the 25th over South Africa were not well placed at
all had a further 20 runs been scored: it would have meant a chase of
a 158 to win the game off 25 overs; not at all steal at about 6.32 an
over instead of the 5.52 required.
But the way South Africa had paced their innings had shown just how
competitive they are and there was little doubt, the way the game had
gone at Hove that there was a need for India to rethink their strategy
over the last 10 overs of their opponents innings.
'We saw that all too clearly the way South Africa played, so we will
certainly have to look at our options,' he agreed. 'We have three days
between now and our next game and will take a close look at what we
are going to do.' On the evidence of Saturday, the Indians need to
get their run rate ticking over a little faster than they did. There
are, however, mitigating factors which need to be considered. Sachin
Tendulkar, who has a penchant for wearing the number 10 and not
because he is a fan of Pele, has just, returned from a back
injury. And with India having a severely disrupted run in their warm
ups, they were always going to be a little rusty.
Make no mistake, India are a competitive side, they have two of the
most exciting batsmen at the tournament in Saurav Ganguly and Rahul
Dravid. And their bowling is equally competitive, although it you have
to feel some sympathy for the 21-year-old Ajit Agarkar and the way he
was manhandled by Lance Klusener and Jonty Rhodes in his ninth over.
But they are going to make their presence felt in the tournament and
Leicester should be a good starting point on Wednesday when they meet
their second African rivals, the dark horses Zimbabwe.
Source :: Trevor Chesterfield