da pinnacle： Nothing seems to be going India’s way in the Coca-Cola Cup in SriLanka and it would require an extraordinary effort from the side tobeat Sri Lanka in tomorrow’s do or die affair for them at thePremadasa Stadium in Colombo
Rex Clementine27-Jul-2001Nothing seems to be going India’s way in the Coca-Cola Cup in SriLanka and it would require an extraordinary effort from the side tobeat Sri Lanka in tomorrow’s do or die affair for them at thePremadasa Stadium in Colombo.The Indian side, already handicapped with the absence of SachinTendulkar, received the shocking news of the suspension of theircaptain Sourav Ganguly by match referee Cammie Smith for showingdissent in the last game against New Zealand when umpire Gamini Silva,ruled him leg before.After calling the Indian captain for an inquiry, Smith, known as alenient match referee, found him guilty of breaching the ICC code ofconduct clause three and suspended him for tomorrow’s crucial gameagainst Sri Lanka.From here on, to qualify for the final, the Indians have to eitherwin all three remaining games or win two games including the gameagainst New Zealand and then wait till Sri Lanka defeat New Zealand ina last round match. They’ve got to do all this while maintaining ahealthier run rate than the Black Caps.This morning, Indian vice captain Rahul Dravid needed to go for x-raysto determine whether he had a fractures on his right thumb. Dravid,attempting a catch in the slips in yesterday’s game against NewZealand was struck by the ball but fears of him too withdrawing fromtomorrow’s game were put aside as the x-rays ruled out any fracture.Ahead of tomorrow’s game, only six Indian players along with coachJohn Wright turned out for practice this evening, which was madeoptional – not for the first time on the tour. From the cricketers whoplayed in the last game, only Hemang Badani, Reetender Sodhi andVirender Sehwag turned up. Probably the management seems to feel thatfor an improved performance, relaxing is better than a net session.A wicket which has not been used so far in this series will be usedfor tomorrow’s game and the curator at the Premadasa Stadium, SusilAnanda feels the pitch is an ideal strip for one-day cricket andexpects it to provide a lot of runs provided the batsmen adopt theright approach.The Sri Lankans meanwhile had a good net session this morning and maymake a few changes for tomorrow’s game. They are likely to change theleft-handed opening combination of Avishka Gunawardene and SanathJayasuriya. Gunawardene is likely to be replaced by Kumar Sangakkara.Romesh Kaluwitharana or Marvan Atapattu could be the captain’s partnerAccording to the team management, all the players are fit fortomorrow’s game and the Sri Lankans are looking forward to deliver theknock-out punch to the Indians which will make their task ofqualifying for the final even slimmer.