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Mahela warns Indians before the tri-series! |
It’s still raining in Brisbane. And given the way in which the India-Australia tie was washed out, I certainly hope we can play out the 100 overs tomorrow. However, since the weather is not in our hands, there’s hardly any point worrying about it.
We are focusing instead on implementing the lessons that we have learnt during our week long acclimatisation period, and we are really keen to get out there and play because we’ve had a good round of warm-up games.
India have quite a few young faces in the squad, but the bowling attack will remain more or less similar to the one that caused such problems for the powerful Australian batting line-up.Therefore, it would be a mistake to say – as some people are doing – that Sri Lanka has the edge owing to the presence of more experienced players. While I would not deny the fact that experience has its benefits, a One-Day game is all about performing on the day, and it has a habit of throwing up surprises.
Yes, the Indians did post a relatively low total against Australia yesterday, but in conditions that suited fast bowling, 194 may not have been too little. Who knows what may have happened had we had a full match? What was evident was that some of the Indian players may be inexperienced, but their bowlers have the ability to exploit the conditions, and may prove a handful in the current playing conditions in Brisbane, which is exactly why we are so looking forward to playing them tomorrow.
Also evident was the fact that Australia – despite all the talk about their having become more beatable in recent times – is still playing great cricket.Brett Lee in particular seems in top form, and it would be extremely silly to write them off. For both India and Sri Lanka, this tour is an excellent opportunity to blood new players.Throwing them in at the deep end is a great way for them to learn, and any cricketer worth his name will tell you how much he enjoys playing in Australia.
I know I do, and every win here is a source of great satisfaction.We are yet to decide on our final eleven, but the team that takes the field tomorrow will certainly include Sanath Jayasuriya, who has recovered from the injury that he sustained in the game against Tasmania.Our first goal is to get into the best-of-three finals, of course, but we’re sure the task will be anything but easy, considering we are up against both the World Cup champions as well as the World Twenty20 champions.
Our aim will be to play consistently good cricket, and I hope to make significant personal contributions to the team’s cause. All of it, of course, will depend on the weather gods. Since rain seems to follow any series in which Sri Lanka and India are involved, I can predict what people will say should tomorrow’s game be affected as well!
This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 and is filed under India Cricket, Sri Lanka cricket. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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