Heat a key element in series

2005-04-11 15:41

Ahmadabad, India - Heat will be a key element in the limited-over series between India and Pakistan, both captains said ahead of Tuesday's fourth one-dayer in this western Indian city where the mercury is hovering above 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit).

Pakistan skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq said winning the toss had added importance in the heat.

"The team that fields first gets exhausted after spending 3 1/2 hours under the scorching sun. That's been a crucial factor in this series," he said.

April and May are the hottest months in India. The three Tests were played in March, when it is cooler.

"Heat's definitely a factor in this series, the team that wants to win needs to overcome it and play well," said Indian captain Sourav Ganguly, whose batsmen mounted huge winning-totals when he won the toss in the first two matches.

But Pakistan reversed the trend in similar manner in the third contest.

"We began the series in Cochin, which was the hottest ... We're trying to keep the heat exhaustion away," he said.

Inzamam said he wants his team to continue the momentum gained by the 106-run victory in Saturday's third one-dayer at Jamshedpur.

"We want to win this match to keep alive our hopes to clinching the series," he said.

Bothered about slow bowling rate

Ganguly said India still had a 2-1 lead coming to the city where the home side has won five of its seven one-day internationals.

India posted victories by 87 and 58 runs in the initial two one-dayers of the current series, but Ganguly is bothered about his team's slow bowling rate.

India took 27 minutes beyond the 3-1/2 hours permitted to deliver its 50 overs in the last match and Ganguly was penalized 70% of his fees by the Chris Broad, the International Cricket Council's match referee.

"We all need hurry up to push the over through quickly," said Ganguly.

The teams:

India (from): Sourav Ganguly (captain), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Dhoni, Rahul Dravid, Mohammad Kaif, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Mongia, Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Laxmipathy Balaji, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and Murali Kartik.

Pakistan (from): Inzamam-ul-Haq (captain), Salman Butt, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Younis Khan, Yousuf Youhana, Abdul Razzaq, Kamran Akmal, Mohammed Hafeez, Asim Kamal, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Mohammed Sami, Danish Kaneria, Rao Iftikhar Anjum, Shahid Nazir and Arshad Khan.

Umpires: Rudi Koertzen, South Africa, and K Hariharan, India.

TV umpire: I Sivaram, India. Match referee: Chris Broad, England.

- SAPA