India to take on West Indies in ‘do or die’ match in T20 WC today
By ANISunday, May 9, 2010
BRIDGETOWN - India would take on hosts West Indies in a must win match of the ICC World T20 Championship at the Kensington Oval here this evening.
Having lost their opening matches in the Super Eight stage, both teams need to win Sunday’s crucial tie to stay in the hunt for a place in the semi-finals.
While India was crushed by Australia by 49 runs, Sri Lanka registered a comprehensive 57 run win against the West Indies in its first match of the pre-semi final stage.
Both teams have struggled with their batting as well as bowling in the tournament. While Indian bowlers were punished by the Kangaroos for some indiscipline show, West Indies, on the other hand, haven’t been impressive with either their bowling, batting or fielding in the championship so far.
However, after having watched Indian batsmen’ poor show against some raw pace of Australian bowlers, West Indian speedsters Kemar Roach and Jerome Taylor would be fancying their chances.
It would be a real test for captain cool Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his boys. The Indian skipper has already admitted that the players are tired, and that batsman are finding it difficult to cope with the bouncy Caribbean tracks, but he will have to find ways to ensure India, the 2007 World T20 Champions, a place in the semifinals.
One would expect Dhoni to lead from the front in the match, as he has done on plenty of occasions in the past, but the players like Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Gautam Gambhir, and Zaheer Khan would have bring in all their experience if the team in blue has to advance further in the T20 World Championship. (ANI)
