India to test its bench strength tomorrow

The five match one day series between India and South Africa reaches its climax in the orange city of Nagpur tomorrow. Nagpur was originally slated to host the third Test between the two teams but when the Board decided to scrap the Test for some additional one dayers, the residents of Nagpur had to settle for four days less of cricketing action.

The Vidarbha Cricket Association ground here is the home ground of the Vidarbha team which is one of the minnows in domestic cricket. True, India's first Test captain CK Nayudu was born in Nagpur (there is a road named after him just outside the stadium) but when he later shifted his allegiances to the city of Indore, Nagpur pined away into the cricketing wilderness. Prashant Vaidya is the only Nagpur based cricketer in recent memory and even he did not represent Vidarbha in the Ranji Trophy.

The South Africans hate to lose anything and the blow that India delivered at Baroda was certainly not a knockout punch. The visitors seem to have put it behind them if their relaxed, even naughty, behaviour at the Baroda airport after the match was any indication. Deep down however the sense of hurt will be there and they will go all out to try and erase the memory of that loss tomorrow. India on the other hand will try to prolong its acquisition of the winning habit and, in the process, take a psychological edge over the visitors into the Sharjah tourney.

Both Nantie Hayward and Henry Williams who were indisposed during the last three matches had a bowl at the nets today although Cronje baulked at indicating the final composition of the eleven. The Indians were more forthcoming as Saurav Ganguly declared that Mohd. Azharuddin, Ajit Agarkar and Sunil Joshi have been left out for tomorrow's game. With Venkatesh Prasad also having joined the team at Baroda, the Indians can afford to experiment a bit and the only toss up is between Mohammed Kaif and Sridharan Sriram.