Have patience is Sachin's plea (24 August 1999)

24 August 1999

Have patience is Sachin's plea

Trevor Chesterfield

Galle (Sri Lanka) - When you have three captains offering olive branches instead of levelling petty accusations and a plea that it is time to move on from the results at the World Cup, there is a suspicion something extra spicy is being cooked in the local kitchens.

So far, however, the Aiwa Cup triangular series has produced solid Australian professionalism and a dash of Asian flair as the second round start later tomorrow when the two sub-continental sides, Sri Lanka and India meet under lights at the R Premadasa Stadium.

About the nearest we have to a display of acrimony has come in the form of Sanath Jayasuriya accusing himself of poor shot selection during his brief innings in Sunday's opening match of the Aiwa Cup triangular series. Which along with D N Pathirana's misjudgement of what he thought he saw on his monitor and what really happened in Adam Gilchrist's run out decision, are the only noticeable ripples on an otherwise smooth pond

Sachin Tendulkar also showed a touch of mild annoyance after his side were badly thrashed by Australia in the second of the two games we had at Galle International Stadium yesterday.

"Have some patience," were his words of advice rather than comfort when asked questions about the way the Indian bowlers delivered their line and length and presented Adam Gilchrist and Andrew Symonds with little more than cannon fodder. There was a lot of wayward short stuff which needs to be rectified before the third game of the tournament.

"In a sense this is a new side playing together and the tournament presents us with a variety of challenges," he added, as if trying to convince himself more than the Indian writers that the game plan went awry when it started raining and they had failed to capitalise on winning the toss. For one thing Nikhil Chopra's radar was out of kilter as for some reason the 25-year-old Delhi off-spinner dropped the ball so short at times it was more in his half of the pitch. Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad were not much better. As the three have been around for some time, well Chopra is relatively new, for Tendulkar to suggest "a new side" is stretching a point.

It would be hard to calculate when last India went through the first 15 overs of an LOI game without managing a boundary. And with the rain building up there was an urgency to put quicker runs on the board. That slip could be costly to India's cause to reach the final next week if as seems likely net run rate can affect their aspirations.

The last time India and Sri Lanka played each other was at Taunton where the Indian duo of Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly fashioned their own brand of torture. On what is relatively a small ground the pair added an India LOI record of 350 plus with 145 to Dravid and 183 to Ganguly. Sacked Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga blamed his bowlers (well, he had to blame someone, didn't he?) forgetting that his field placings did not help his bowlers' cause too much either.

There was some temporary cause for alarm in the Sri Lanka camp today when it was thought that Jayasuriya, with a dodgy finger, might not be fit in time for tomorrow's game. This it seems is little more than the general scare story: no doubt designed to cause a pre-match debating point. Jayasuriya, it is known, did take a blow on the finger, but Sri Lanka sources say it is 'nothing too serious'. Certainly the Lanka fielding was steady enough, and the bowling put together a better performance against India.

About the only change to the Lankan side is either Nuwan Zoysa or Chaminda Vaas making way for Promodaya Wickremasinghe. As the chairman of selectors, Sidath Wettimuny, has pointed out, the series can enable the selectors to look at their options and experiment.

It is a justified argument: you learn nothing by fielding the same side match after match, and although the batting buckled against the fire power of Jason Gillespie, who was as aggressive as they come, it is in the kitchen where you learn to handle the heat. And the pitch conditions here did not help the batsmen on Sunday afternoon as the surface hardened in what sun there was.

India may also be running and experiment plan. They had a light fielding session and net at Galle International Stadium yesterday and are only travelling up to Colombo tomorrow, which could leave them a little short on pre-match preparation.

Sri Lanka had a session at R Premadasa today and are to practice under lights later on. There is an impression than any game they win out of this tournament would be a bonus and reaching the final some justification for the selectors long-term planning.

Source :: Trevor Chesterfield