London: India and West Indies go head-to-head at the Oval here today, with the winners guaranteed a place in the ICC Champions Trophy semi-finals.
Both teams got their campaigns off to a winning start last week, with Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s India beating South Africa by 26 runs in the tournament opener and Dwayne Bravo’s Windies edging out Pakistan by two wickets on Friday.
The match will see a landmark for India batsman Virat Kohli, who will play in his 100th One Day International at the age of just 24, but the build-up to the game has been somewhat overshadowed by controversies back home.
Yesterday saw more developments in the Indian Premier League (IPL) spot-fixing and betting scandal, but Dhoni insists his team aren’t distracted by such matters.
“We don’t get to read any newspapers, so whatever is happening back home is happening back home. We are just doing our practice sessions and we’re doing the best we can,” he said.
“I’ve always said that being in the present really helps because it takes off the things that are not really in your control. If you talk about what’s happening right now, we are busy doing our practice session, we had a team activity yesterday and we are quite busy doing all that stuff, because those are the things that are really in our control and will really help us improve our game.”
The West Indies batsmen struggled against Pakistan, as they lost eight wickets on the way to chasing down a target of 171. But they still boast destructive batsmen such as Chris Gayle, and Dhoni is aware of the need to strike early.
“The Gayle factor will always be there. He is one of those individuals that have a big impact on the game, so it’s always good to get them out early,” he said. “Our fast bowlers will have a fair chance in that they’ll have two new balls to get him out — overcast conditions and maybe a bit of help from the wicket will do the trick. What is important is to realise that, if you don’t get a batsmen like Chris Gayle out, most likely he’ll take you out of the game.”
West Indies coach Ottis Gibson chose to focus on the team’s bowlers, insisting that, while they may not be as good as the Caribbean greats of the past, they are talented enough to inflict damage in this tournament.
“The last time we used short-pitched bowling as a weapon we had Joel Garner, Colin Croft, Michael Holding and pacers like that. We don’t have those tall guys anymore so, as we saw against Pakistan, we pitched it up, we swung it a little bit and we put it in the right areas, and I suppose that will be the strategy going forward,” he said.
“I thought we bowled very well against Pakistan. Obviously the pitch assisted a little bit — there was a little more bounce than perhaps we expected, but all in all I thought it was good bowling on the day.”
Dhoni said he loves one-day cricket and is sad this will be the last edition of the Champions Trophy. “I’m a big fan of One Day International cricket. The reason being it’s a mix of both Test cricket and Twenty20,” he said.
“I feel each and every format is special in its own way, but in the last few years I feel we are trying to make ODI too much into a T20 format. We should just leave it the way it was before the recent rule changes came into play. We were already seeing people scoring 300-odd runs and the opposition are able to chase that amount. Too many changes can actually spoil the recipe at times.”
