Chennai, March 19: The result of the game will not thwart them from qualifying for the quarter finals from this Group (B) of death, as it were, but Team India will have a job on hand to finish their league outings on a winning note when they take on the West Indies in the 2011 World Cup match at M A Chidambaram Stadium here tomorrow.
Dhoni albeit the denial by the Cricket Board of having been given any dressing down by the selectors for not getting his playing XI right and the ‘up and down’ performance of his team, will be going into the game with these thoughts ringing in his mind.
Will he give in to demands of playing Tamil Nadu off spinner R Ashwin instead of allegedly struggling leggie Piyush Chawla and bring in Suresh Raina, drop Ashish Nehra, if not exactly for failing in the death over against the Proteas, for the left arm pacer’s inconsistent show. Will Munaf Patel also be axed and Sreesanth brought in? Dhoni’s critics as well as fans and scribes covering the games will have to wait till tomorrow to get the answers.
The West Indies too will be better off if South Africa puts paid to Bangladesh’s hopes of qualifying. But as coach Ottis Gibson said after the team’s narrow 18 run defeat against England on Thursday, the Caribbeans would also like to win the game.
The full house, as assured by the local staging association TNCA, will be treated to another hum dinger of a contest if the Caribbean batting clicks better than the way it did on Thursday.
They would be in a difficult position of having to defeat the favourites India by a huge margin if Bangladesh were to turn the tables on Proteas.
–UNI