da bet7k： Both Ricky Ponting and Glenn McGrath lavished praise on Sachin Tendulkar,but were confident that Australia would prevail when they meet India onSaturday in the third game of the DLF Cup
Dileep Premachandran in Kuala Lumpur15-Sep-2006
The talk surrounds Glenn McGrath and Sachin Tendulkar, but Rahul Dravid wants to focus on beating Australia in India’s next match in the DLF Cup © Getty Images
Both Ricky Ponting and Glenn McGrath lavished praise on Sachin Tendulkar,but were confident that Australia would prevail when they meet India onSaturday in the third game of the DLF Cup. McGrath is representingAustralia for the first time since the VB Series last January, andrelished the opportunity to pit himself against both Tendulkar and BrianLara in the same tournament.”My whole career, I have enjoyed bowling to guys who are the best in theworld,” he said. “Sachin and Lara are two of those guys. I didn’t get achance to bowl at Lara the other night, now I’ll see how I go againstSachin. I am looking forward to it. Sachin is a class player, I havealways enjoyed bowling to him in the park. The way I started the othernight was a perfect length to a right-hander. So, we have a right-handerwho has got a 140 under his belt. He is due to fail in this game!”Ponting too was awestruck by the manner in which Tendulkar had announcedhis return to the fray, saying: “I have always said that Sachin is thebest player I have played against and seen. He is absolutely world-class.Having him at the top of the order makes the team look much moreformidable. He gets in there early, he has technique to play the new-ball,and he can be as damaging as anyone in the middle and end overs. He makesfor a pretty good package when he is at his best.”That said, he insisted that the game would not be about individuals.”India has always been the team that we respect, and they have lots ofmatch-winners in their team,” said Ponting. “On their day, they are asgood as anybody going around. We have got one win under our belt and thatshould help. As for India, this is a short series, so they will, I amsure, look at tomorrow as a game that they must win.”Rahul Dravid suggested that a positive mindset would be India’s biggestally. “We need to be at the top of the game to beat the Aussies,” he said.”They have maintained their status as the best side in the world, and wehave played some good one-day cricket in the last year. It should make fora good contest.”Like everyone saw, the West Indies were in control for three-fourths ofthe game, but then the Aussies fought back and won convincingly in theend. You must be in the game right till the end against Australia, youcan’t relax at any stage. We will look to be aggressive and positive.”India’s preparations weren’t helped, however, by rain that resulted intheir practice session at the Turf Club being called off, after onlyVirender Sehwag and Mahendra Singh Dhoni had got an opportunity to knockaround in the nets. “We have had just about enough of this bad weather,”said a visibly irked Dravid. “I think we have got our quota of rain for acouple of years in the last month or so! It is a bit frustrating, but itis something we can’t control. Yesterday was shaping up into a good game,and we were beginning to have good training session here today. Thefacilities were great and we had excellent practice pitches, but only twoplayers got to bat.”Dravid accepted that India’s bowling had been well below par against WestIndies, who were 141 for 2 from just 20 overs when the rain came down. “Wedidn’t bowl as well as we would have liked, and there is a lesson to learnthere,” he said. “We have worked out the areas that, if we bowl in, willbring us success. We have got plans in place, now it’s a question ofexecuting them.”Australia also struggled with the ball when Shivnarine Chanderpaul wassmashing it all over the place, but McGrath was coy when asked if he wouldbecome something of a mentor for the younger bowlers. “I don’t know if Iam good at it,” he said truthfully. “But I get along well with the youngquicks and they sort of keep me on my toes. I haven’t spent a great dealof time with them just chatting to them, so I am working their game outand seeing actually how much they know about their game.”Despite the fact that he’s now one of the game’s senior statesmen, McGrathhinted that the snarl, that has been just as much part of his game as hisaccuracy, wouldn’t go into premature retirement. “Being a fast bowler, oneneeds to be aggressive,” he said. “Even so, there is a line I have madethat I don’t cross too often. But Ricky wouldn’t want me skipping aroundafter bowling half-volleys and smiling when I get hit for four.”Both camps played down the significance of a Greg Chappell-coached Indiataking on Australia for the first time. “We don’t look at it that way,”said Dravid. “It doesn’t make a difference that Greg is an Aussie and weare playing Australia tomorrow. He is our coach, and Australia is justanother team. I don’t know if the fact that Greg has coached people likePonting in the past will make that much of a difference.”Ponting, who was part of the Australia A squad coached by Chappell in1994-95, agreed. “You might be right there,” he said with a laugh, whenasked to recall those long-ago days when he was trying to make his mark.”I have only heard good things about Greg as a coach. He has been with usat the Academy at different times, he knows a lot of our game reasonablywell. So he will have a fair deal of knowledge to pass on to the Indianteam about us.”When he [Chappell] was coach of South Australia, Tim Neilsen was with himthere as the assistant coach. Everything he has said about Greg ispositive, Tim said Greg is the best batting coach he has worked with. Hewould have brought a fair bit to the Indian team, and a fair bit ofknowledge about us too.”How that knowledge helps the Indians on Saturday remains to be seen.