Determined Indians keen to clinch series

Fresh from their thoroughly professional performance in the last encounter in Indore, a determined India will be keen to keep the momentum going and clinch the limited overs series against world champions Australia at the Indira Priyadarshini stadium in Visakhapatnam tomorrow.

Leading the five-match series 2-1, captain Sourav Ganguly and his valiant men will leave no stone unturned in their quest for a series win and tame the formidable Aussies in the shorter version of the game as well.

But despite their much improved show in both the Tests and one-day series so far, the home team can hardly afford to be complacent against the visitors who are fully capable of bouncing back in what promises to be a thrilling contest of nerves and skills.

The resounding 118-run victory in the last match in Indore will no doubt boost the confidence level of the Indians who have not only been aggressive but have also shown that they can handle the pressure in crunch situations.

Clearly, the pressure will be on the Australians who have failed to live upto their awesome reputation on the Indian tour so far and captain Steve Waugh will surely have a new strategy in place to counter the rampaging Indians.

The Aussies, who seemed to be a tired lot, have been quite vulnerable to spin bowling and young off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, who was a huge success in the Test series capturing 32 wickets, again posed problems in the last match.

Despite being in very good form, Tendulkar seemed to be a little too adventurous in the first two one dayers and had to return to the pavilion after scoring 30s, but he seemed determined to script a big knock in the last match.

Tendulkar will be hoping to play a similar role tomorrow to guide his team to a good total while the visitors will surely have a strategy for him as well as the other Indian batsmen.

Ganguly said he wanted to clinch the series in this match. "We have won the Test series and will try to win tomorrow to clinch the one-day series too. It would be great to win both series."

The Indians, who were plagued by run outs in the second and third matches, today practiced running between the wickets during the nets in a unique fashion. After being huddled around coach John Wright for ten minutes, the entire team took turns in batches of three to four to run around in circles.

Wright said the team was in a good position and should win the series tomorrow. "We played pretty well in the last match. The performance was satisfactory though we need to improve on our fielding and running between the wickets," he said. "If we play the way we can, we should go on to win tomorrow," he said.

The Australians have brought back opener Matthew Hayden, who sat out in the last match as part of the rotation policy despite his tremendous form, to strengthen the batting which has looked very fragile in the middle. The burly Hayden has been in devastating form ever since he landed in the country and has handled the Indian pacers and the spinners with ease.

With a number of Australians joining the team for the one-dayers only, it may be difficult for them to come to terms with the conditions in the sub-continent, where the wickets are slower. With Mark Waugh, who scored a classy century in the second one-dayer at Pune, out of the tour because of a finger injury, Adam Gilchrist will once again open the innings along with Hayden.

Pace spearhead Glenn McGrath, who was supposed to be rested but was included in the team at the last moment after Nathan Bracken was found to be unfit, may not figure in the playing eleven as part of the rotation policy, but considering the importance of the game, the lanky speedster could well be included to strengthen the bowling department.

Star leg spinner Shane Warne has not made much of an impact against the strong Indian batting and it remains to be seen whether the Aussie think tank retains him in the team or opts for a medium pacer instead.

The Indians had a light workout in the morning to get acclimatised to the conditions in this coastal city staging an international match after a gap of six years. The Aussies had practice later in the day.

The venue has hosted four one-day matches till now. India has won both the games it has played and there have been two matches between neutral teams. The last match played here was between Australia and Kenya in 1996 World Cup which the Aussies won comprehensively. Both teams will decide their playing eleven only tomorrow after having another close look at the track.

The teams (from):

India: Sourav Ganguly (capt), Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Hemang Badani, Dinesh Mongia, Vijay Dahiya, Ajit Agarkar, Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Sharandeep Singh, Robin Singh, Yuvraj Singh.

Australia: Steve Waugh (capt), Matthew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist, Ricky Ponting, Michael Bevan, Damien Martyn, Darren Lehmann, Andrew Symonds, Ian Harvey, Damien Fleming, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Nathan Bracken, Shane Lee.

Umpires: GA Pratap Kumar and SK Tarapore. Third umpire: Subrato Banerjee. Match referee: Cammie Smith.