Clear thinking Azhar plans ahead (16 May 1999)

16 May 1999

Clear thinking Azhar plans ahead

Trevor Chesterfield

LONDON - As India head for Leicester and their second World Cup match, their canny skipper, Mohammad Azharuddin, is not at all put out by losing to South Africa at Hove on Saturday.

Naturally he is disappointed that India had lost with 16 balls of their Group A match remaining, but as he pointed out, there are still four more matches remaining in their pool.

'There was no disgrace in losing to South Africa the way we did here,' he said as if chastising the Indian media for querying his decisions. 'I'm happy the way we kept pace with the favourites during the day,' he said, agreeing that India needed at least 20 more runs to have put pressure on South Africa.

'Now we have to look forward and plan for the next match and work on our plans,' he said, acknowledging there were a couple of areas when the team's game plan needs to improve.

At 116 for four in the 25th over South Africa were not well placed at all had a further 20 runs been scored: it would have meant a chase of a 158 to win the game off 25 overs; not at all steal at about 6.32 an over instead of the 5.52 required.

But the way South Africa had paced their innings had shown just how competitive they are and there was little doubt, the way the game had gone at Hove that there was a need for India to rethink their strategy over the last 10 overs of their opponents innings.

'We saw that all too clearly the way South Africa played, so we will certainly have to look at our options,' he agreed. 'We have three days between now and our next game and will take a close look at what we are going to do.' On the evidence of Saturday, the Indians need to get their run rate ticking over a little faster than they did. There are, however, mitigating factors which need to be considered. Sachin Tendulkar, who has a penchant for wearing the number 10 and not because he is a fan of Pele, has just, returned from a back injury. And with India having a severely disrupted run in their warm ups, they were always going to be a little rusty.

Make no mistake, India are a competitive side, they have two of the most exciting batsmen at the tournament in Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid. And their bowling is equally competitive, although it you have to feel some sympathy for the 21-year-old Ajit Agarkar and the way he was manhandled by Lance Klusener and Jonty Rhodes in his ninth over.

But they are going to make their presence felt in the tournament and Leicester should be a good starting point on Wednesday when they meet their second African rivals, the dark horses Zimbabwe.

Source :: Trevor Chesterfield