India will have to win in style

Harsha shares his thoughts on the India-Sri Lanka game later tonight, and ponders on the strategies India will need to employ to make the permutations and combinations matter.

You could say Pakistan slunk their way into the semi-finals but that would be doing them injustice. They won the game that mattered and it is not their fault that some other equations went their way. They now play their semi-final against Australia in St Lucia, a repeat of the match between these two teams in the group stage. It would seem that Australia will start overwhelming favourites but when it comes to the knock-out stage, anything can happen. And St Lucia is a much better place to play Australia than Barbados.

Now India must show that they too can grab the lifeline thrown their way. Unlike Pakistan, they don’t merely have to win, they must do so in some style but it is not outside the realms of possibility. Sri Lanka seem overly reliant on Mahela Jayawardene and don’t have the firepower at the top to unsettle India. Having said that, India present a fairly acceptable contest as well. Both teams will be up against a style they do not mind too much.

There could be a temptation to go with Yadav for Jadeja but at St Lucia there is a bit more for the slower bowlers and maybe Chawla will get a go. With the equation pretty clear and chasing in a crunch game that much more difficult, India might want to bat first and put on as big a score as they can manage. 180 will be essential because it translates straightaway into 160 which as England showed against New Zealand, is pretty gettable.

The other alternative of course is to peg Sri Lanka down to a gettable score and chase it down in 17 overs. That is an option the Lankans will prefer since they will be aware that there will be greater pressure on India in this game. India have to do the running and that is why I believe the preferred option will be to bat first.

Neither team fields too well but India must be aware that had they been a superior unit the 20-run difference could have been made up in the field alone!

Oh, and by the way, some of you might have noticed that I have made the assumption that Australia will beat the West Indies. At this stage it seems a decent one to make!