Tendulkar offers team tips to stand apart

Wellington: Swirling winds at Basin Reserve Park have made the visiting Indians adapt some eye-popping measures, including a change in stance by a majority of their top-order batsmen.

Don't be surprised if the likes of Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh spread their feet wide apart while waiting for the bowlers to run-up and bowl during the all-important final Test which gets under way today.

Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar has served up this advice to the rest of the batters, wanting them to open up their legs a bit more in order to be settled and well-grooved in stance in abnormally windy conditions prevalent at Basin Reserve Park.

Basin Reserve is largely open from all sides and howling winds can knock up a speed up to 30mph. It implies that bowlers will have a hard task running up against the wind. Similarly, batters could feel pushed by the wind from behind or knocked back on their heels. Fielders too are known to misjudge a skied catch as winds make a ball swerve away from its path.

Tendulkar, who hit a century at this venue in 1999, has asked the rest of the batters to take a leaf out of V.V.S. Laxman's stance. Laxman waits in stance with legs truly wide apart and Tendulkar feels the example would serve the rest really well.

The master blaster, who himself has a pretty open stance, reckons that with legs apart, the wind is unlikely to knock a batsman off his stance. "Closed" legs could offer resistance to wind and thus a batsman can feel unsteady in his stance.

The fast bowlers too are being asked train with parachutes attached around their waist so as to develop resistance to winds blowing against them. Fielders are trying to practice with plastic balls lobbed high up in the air.

Meanwhile, Harbhajan Singh has been advised by coach Gary Kirsten to avoid flighting his deliveries at Basin Reserve, the idea being that a flighted delivery by a spinner could lose its path in strong windy conditions.

India is chasing a historic win at Basin Reserve Park where, it must be said, they have lost their last four outings. Being 1-0 in the series, they need just a draw here to clinch the first series win in these shores in 41 years.

- Cricket News