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| Sunday, 18 December 2005 |
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Teams hit by viral flu, Tharanga to make Test debut? Sa'adi Thawfeeq reporting from India, AHMEDABAD, December 17, A viral stomach bug accompanied by flu which starts with a sore throat has hit both camps ahead of tomorrow's third and final cricket Test between Sri Lanka and India starting at the Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera here. Sri Lanka are fighting hard to get fast bowlers Chaminda Vaas and Dilhara Fernando fit, while India has problems with their captain Rahul Dravid who like his deputy Virender Sehwag (last week) had to be hospitalized. A decision on whether Dravid would be fit enough to play tomorrow will be taken later today. Indian cricket sources said that Dravid who contracted the flu a day before the start of the second Test at Delhi may have aggravated it by playing. If Dravid fails to make it, Sehwag who missed the second Test will lead India in a Test for the first time. Sri Lanka team manager Michael Tissera said that Vaas may be fit for tomorrow but declined to say whether Fernando would pull through. "They are not 100 percent at the moment. With another good rest today we are hoping they will be fine tomorrow," said coach Tom Moody. "I am pleased in a way that it is 24 hours before the match and not during the match. Generally the fever passes off in 24 hours." Apart from these two players, skipper Marvan Atapattu who had also recovered from the flu skipped the scheduled press conference as he was receiving treatment for a headache, according to Tissera. Fast bowler Lasith Malinga and opening batsman Avishka Gunawardene are the others in the team who have been affected by the virus and have recovered. Gunawardene who was slotted in to open the batting with Atapattu in the absence of the injured Sanath Jayasuriya is likely to be replaced by 21-year-old uncapped left-hander Upul Tharanga. Tharanga played in four matches in the one-day series and made 69 runs with a top score of 28. Gunawardene has so far failed to make an impression with the bat being dismissed for scores of 4, 25 and 9. To add to his poor failures he has also been a disaster on the field. There is also a likelihood of Malinga getting the nod ahead of Fernando. So far the pocket rocket has not been unleashed at the Indian batsmen who have not faced him so far. He could be the element of surprise Sri Lanka can throw at the opposition. "We are hoping that we are picking from the full squad of 15 tomorrow morning. We haven't got too many hands on the deck and we are certainly not looking at our eleven today," said coach Tom Moody. Off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan was also not among the players who practiced at the nets today. But according to Tissera, Muralitharan who suffered a slight leg strain in the Delhi Test, is fit and although he didn't bowl, ran around the ground with physio Tommy Simseck. Moody said the defeat at Delhi has in no way dampened the spirits of the team and they are going into the final Test with the same frame of mind as they went for the second Test. "We are going into this game confident. We haven't really had that confidence taken away. There's a lot to play for. We didn't' expect to be 1-0 down at this stage. We have got a series to save and we've got a Test to win in India which hasn't been done before. There's a lot to achieve over the next five days," he said. Moody said although there was a considerable run difference off 188 runs in India's victory at Delhi, he did not think the match was that too far apart. "The teams were pretty closely matched in that Test. A couple of crucial periods of play that amounted to about 60 minutes of cricket over the five days cost the Sri Lankans. You'll see this team come back fighting. I hope those 60 minutes won't be happening in our dressing room, but happening in the opposition's," said Moody. "We will have to make sure we don't make the same mistakes we made in the second Test. We will be working very hard towards achieving it in the next five days. It is up to the players to learn from the mistakes they made in the last Test. All you can do in this situation is to review your performance and correct the mistakes you made and hope to not make them again. That's the difference between good teams and good players and average teams and average players," he said. Indian coach Greg Chappell said the Test will be a battle of wits of who's got the most patience among batters and bowlers. "It's going to be a hard working Test match like at Delhi. The best way to play this Test is positively, to win it." Chappell rated leg-spinner Anil Kumble who will be making his 100th Test appearance for India tomorrow as one of the great bowlers who has been much under rated because he is not a big spinner of the ball. "He is a great competitor, has terrific control, persistence and has competitive instincts. In my own mind I have held Dennis Lillee as the greatest competitor that I have seen. I would put Anil up with him," said Chappell. SRI LANKA (from): Marvan Atapattu (captain), Upul Tharanga, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Tilan Samaraweera, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Jehan Mubarak, Chaminda Vaas, Muttiah Muralitharan, Malinga Bandara, Dilhara Fernando, Lasith Malinga, Farveez Maharoof, Sajeewa Weerakoon, Avishka Gunawardene. INDIA (from): Rahul Dravid (captain), Virender Sehwag, Wasim Jaffer, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Lakshman, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammed Kaif, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Ajith Agarkar, Irfan Pathan, Gautam Gambhir, Rudra Pratap Singh. |
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