Not having won since the opening match of the Caribbean tour, Chappell reckoned that the remaining two matches represented a great opportunity to get back to the winning ways of last season
Dileep Premachandran in Kuala Lumpur19-Sep-2006
‘On a given day, anyone is capable of beating anyone else’ – Chappell © AFP
Though the permutations suggest that India can afford to lose to WestIndies and still make Sunday’s final, Greg Chappell wasn’t prepared torely on them in the build-up to Wednesday’s game. Not having won since theopening match of the Caribbean tour, Chappell reckoned that the remainingtwo matches represented a great opportunity to get back to the winningways of last season, when the team had brushed aside the likes of SriLanka, Pakistan and England.”We’ve two very important matches that we have to do well in and will have quite a few of those over the next few months,” he said. “We are focusedon tomorrow’s game and then we will be concerned about the next one. If westart looking too far ahead, we’ll make mistakes. We have to go out andput together a good performance in this first game then worry about thenext one.”Having lost to West Indies on the Duckworth-Lewis method, India collapsedin a heap in the face of a revised target against Australia before therain came down to gift them two points. Chappell, though, wasn’t toodisheartened by the displays, preferring instead to focus on thepositives. “I thought it was a good comeback [against Australia], Ithought we bowled quite well early but the Australians played well,” hesaid. “It’s a good sign that we regrouped and were able to contain them.But in the half-games that we had, we batted well in the first game andbowled well in the second game, so those are good signs.”Though West Indies are already certain of a place in the final, Chappellrefused to underestimate the threat that they would pose. “They’ve got a lotof talent in that team,” he said. “You’ve had some of their key playersperform very well yesterday. Any team that has key players performing willdo well. There is not much difference between the top six or seven teams.On a given day, anyone is capable of beating anyone else.”Much of his own team’s concerns centre around Irfan Pathan, whose bowlingagainst West Indies was so woeful that the new-ball was given to MunafPatel for the following game against Australia. “He [Pathan] has bowled better,there is no doubt about that,” said Chappell. “For him to get better, hehas to try different things and look at different roles in the team.That’s not to say that he won’t come back and open the bowling at somestage in this tournament.”We’ve probably got a few players who are not at their peak at the moment.And as I’ve said before, you won’t have everybody in their best form atthe same time. Cricket teams go through that, players go through that. Ifyou look at any team, you see similar things. It’s a bit of a concern butit’s not something we’re losing sleep over at this stage.”He also defended the decision to move Virender Sehwag down the order,saying that it was part of the strategy to try out various options aheadof the World Cup. “We’re using bowlers in different positions, we’re usingbatters in different positions, all to try and develop the team to becomemore versatile.”Despite West Indies making short work of a competitive Australia total inthe last game, Chappell was of the opinion that batting first remained thebest option in these conditions. “It can change once we see the pitch, butconventional wisdom suggests that batting first in a day-night game isgood,” he said. “We’re quite happy batting first if we win the toss.”They piled up 309 when they did so in the last encounter against WestIndies. But with the bowling, Patel apart, looking increasingly pop-gun,even that wasn’t enough against Chris Gayle and Brian Lara in rampant mood. Chappelland his team can only hope that they’re due for a reversal of fortune, andquickly.