SPORT-IND 2LST

Unlike the Indians, the South Africans put up a clinical
show but captain Graeme Smith cautioned his teammates not to
take the visitors lightly.
"I expect them to bounce back. We have to put our foot
down in the next match," Smith said.
For the Indians, pacer Ashish Nehra was a big
disappointment in Durban, and that forced captain Dhoni to use
three part-time bowlers to try and contain the run flow.
But it is highly unlikely that the team management will
drop him as the left-arm seamer had done well in the past.
"Honestly speaking, these are the four-five fast bowlers
we have got. We do not have many options to play with. So we
have to back them to do well. Whether they are in match
practice or not what is important is that we take care of
these bowlers and they should go in the World Cup without any
injuries," Dhoni had said.
South Africa will miss prolific all-rounder Jacques
Kallis, who is nursing an injury. The veteran has been the key
player in the South African batting line-up and has been more
than handy with the ball as well.
But the Proteas still have a good batting line-up with
skipper Graeme Smith, the explosive duo of A B de Villiers and
JP Duminy and the consistent Hashim Amla to anchor the
middle-order. Amla, de Villiers and Duminy struck half
centuries in the first match and will be looking to maintain
that form.
The Indians are aware that they could have done much
better in the first game and captain Dhoni has promised to
bounce back in the series.
"We could have done better. When you are playing with
four bowlers, you are under a bit of pressure, that if one of
the bowler does not bowl well then you have to make those
overs with the part timers."
"We can bounce back. We can play better cricket than
this. That way cricket is good game as in every match you
start afresh. We have to click as a unit to win matches,"
Dhoni said.
It is the final ODI series that India and South Africa
play before the World Cup starting February 19, and both sides
would look to settle their squads for the big event through
these five matches.
The teams (from):
India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain/keeper), Sachin
Tendulkar, Murali Vijay, Yuvraj Singh, R Ashwin, Piyush
Chawla, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Virat Kohli, Praveen
Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel, Yusuf Pathan, Suresh Raina,
Rohit Sharma, S Sreesanth.
South Africa: Graeme Smith (captain), Hashim Amla, Johan
Botha, AB de Villiers (wicketkeeper), Jean-Paul Duminy, Faf du
Plessis, Imran Tahir, Colin Ingram, David Miller, Morne
Morkel, Wayne Parnell, Robin Peterson, Dale Steyn, Lonwabo
Tsotsobe.
Match starts 1800 hrs (IST). PTI LN
HMI


The information contained in this electronic message and any attachments to this
message are intended for the exclusive use of the addressee(s) and may contain
proprietary, confidential or privileged information. If you are not the intended
recipient, you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify
the sender immediately and destroy all copies of this message and any attachments
contained in it.


Delete & Prev | Delete & Next