Familiar foes square up for battle royal

Often though England and India have met in one-day internationals in recent times, last year's encounters pale into insignificance beside tomorrow's Kingsmead day-nighter.

While India had England's measure in last year's classic NatWest Final as well as the ICC Champions Trophy, there is little qualitative difference between the two sides. India have the superior batting, while England's opening attack is the more reliable.

Although the two teams have the same number of points, England have yet to take the field and lose, while India have come under the Australian cosh. Both sides have had a rash of minnow nerves, at the hands of Namibia and Holland respectively.

The toss tomorrow will again be vital. Should Nasser Hussain win it, the outcome could well rest on how Tendulkar, Sehwag, Ganguly and company deal with the threat posed by Anderson and Caddick in conditions that favour swing under darkening Durban skies.

India's coach, John Wright countered: "Any side that is serious about winning championships such as this won't worry too much about the toss. You have to worry about your own performance and the problems you have to solve out there in the middle.

"We respect England, they are developing and they had a good win the other night. The match is nicely poised and it's an opportunity for both sides to make a statement. We feel if we can get out of the group we will be a tough proposition and they will possibly feel no different."

If the ball does swing. England's pace sensation James Anderson can expect to add to the nine wickets he has already bagged in the tournament at an average of 10.88. It is a point not lost on India's leader, Sourav Ganguly.

"We have not seen him much, but we saw him bowl very well against Pakistan and he looks good," Ganguly said.

It is Saturday's win over Pakistan that will have enabled spirits to soar after the political turmoil of the previous month. What effect that had on dressing room morale is impossible to gauge, but at Newlands it looked binding. And nothing breeds confidence like success on the field.

On current form Sachin Tendulkar's wicket looks like a pearl beyond price. So far his scores are 52, 36, 81 and most recently 152 against Namibia, his 34th one-day international century.

"He is enjoying being back in the opening position and with any great player they have the sense of occasion," Wright added.

One of the bowlers with his sights trained on Tendulkar is England's Andrew Caddick, who is far from overawed by tomorrow's challenge.

"The key will be continuing the form we've been building up to and to remain level-headed about things and not allow Saturday to go to our heads," Caddick stressed.

"The Indians are a very big threat. They have a very good batting line-up but the success they had against us in the Test series last summer has nothing to do with this match.

"Most of their games so far have been against lesser opposition so thankfully for us, their main batsmen further down the order haven't played that much and hopefully we will be able to use that to our advantage tomorrow."

For England, Marcus Trescothick will doubtless hope to emerge from his recent poor run against a team which he has often dominated over the past year. He has scored two centuries and earned two man-of-the-match awards against them.

"He is a very fine player and his record against India is sensational in one-day cricket," Hussain said.

"He plays spin very well and he's a big player for us. You can't expect people to score runs all the time, however good you are. Even Michael Vaughan, Sachin Tendulkar and others like that will go through periods when they don't score runs."

Namibia's coach Dougie Brown, who watched his side trouble England at Buffalo Park last week, believes England's attack holds the key.

"England have just got to bowl straight," Brown said. "And with the form they're in, especially James Anderson, that should not be a problem. India do tend to struggle when the ball goes round in the air as it does at Durban."

England are keeping their fingers crossed over the fitness of their captain and key batsman. Hussain is recovering from a stiff neck while Michael Vaughan hopes to be fit after ultrasound and MRI scans on the leg injury he sustained in Cape Town were both clear.

India are likely to retain just one front-line spinner - Anil Kumble has been left out in favour of Harbhajan Singh in their last two matches - with left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra hoping to be passed fit after turning his ankle against Namibia.