India’s batting the key at SuperSport Park](http://uk.cricinfo.com/link_to_database/ARCHIVE/CRICKET_NEWS/2003/FEB/140104_WC2003_14FEB2003.html)
If it were not for the nature of the teams involved, Saturday’s Pool A match would already be written off as a no-contest, SuperSport Park, Centurion, would be half-filled at best, and journalists would be tempted to use agency reports in place of meticulously written previews.
But memories are still fresh of one particular series - also written off as a no-contest - between Australia and India in which the latter bounced back from one Test down to deny their rivals the series win that would have been the ultimate prize for a team with a cabinet already stuffed to bursting with silverware. To boot, Australia are hardly as potent in one-day cricket as in the longer version, India are more likely to play out of their skins in a World Cup game, and as the television pundits don’t miss any chance of informing us, anything can happen in one-day cricket.
Even, it appeared for a brief period on Wednesday, a defeat of India by the Netherlands, and that performance must still be preying on John Wright’s mind. India’s prime intent, after a tour of New Zealand that must have left deep psychological scars on the batsmen, would have been to get big runs against Holland’s bowling - gather up Dutch courage, so to speak, before they padded up against McGrath and Co.
Instead, India mustered only 204, and only Javagal Srinath and Anil Kumble - experienced bowlers, almost mechanical in demolishing the Netherlands’ batting - prevented the first Goliath-slaying incident of the 2003 World Cup. But the subsequent victory would hardly have allayed the jitters that Indian fans felt as they saw the wicket-to-wicket seam-up military medium-pace of Tim de Leede knock over stalwarts like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid.
The Indian captain, for one, recognises the endemic weaknesses riddling the batting, and Sourav Ganguly will depend even more on his bowlers against Australia. “We have to play to our strengths, and we have two high-quality spinners in Harbhajan (Singh) and (Anil) Kumble,” he said on Thursday. “We have to make the best possible use of them.”
That remark is perhaps a pointer to India also playing an unchanged team at Centurion, and indeed after Wednesday, Ganguly could only feel that they need the seventh batsman more than the fifth front-line bowler. It is also a foregone conclusion that Dravid will don the wicket-keeping gloves yet again.
Australia, however, are targetting primarily one of those seven batsmen, one who has enjoyed immense one-day success against them. “We haven’t played against him for a while, but every time we have played against him he’s done extremely well, he’s played brilliantly,” said Australian captain Ricky Ponting. “We’ve had lots of plans and different things we’ve tried against him, and none of them have really worked.”
Ponting regarded Tendulkar’s recent poor form - the 52 against the Netherlands notwithstanding - as ominous rather than promising. “I would rather have him score a lot of runs coming into the game against us,” he said. “He seems to save his best for us!” With Ganguly confirming that Tendulkar would continue to open, the first few overs of the Indian innings may just be the most explosive.
Tendulkar himself may rue the fact that a dear opponent will not be trundling in to bowl at SuperSport Park. The absence of Shane Warne, an immense source of relief to most teams, will impact India to a lesser extent; their success against the leg-spinner may have actually given them an edge, although the presence of Brad Hogg as sole spinner will not exactly set them quivering in their boots either.
The Indians will be encouraged by SuperSport Park’s tradition of encouraging big strokes and big totals. Only two scores of below 150 have been registered in 15 games, and the ball comes on well to the bat - a fact that strokemakers like Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar will undoubtedly relish.
But the track also offers assistance to bowlers willing to bend their back, and few are as willing as Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee. In the final analysis, it will be India’s display against Australia’s pacemen that will either let them down or - in a more optimistic scenario - convince a billion backers of their unalloyed potential.
