Bhajji forecasts a win

MUMBAI: India will bounce back from the 4-1 one-day series defeat in West Indies in May and win an overdue trophy in next month’s triangular series in Sri Lanka, leading off-spinner Harbhajan Singh forecast.

South Africa are the third team in the August 14-29 tournament. Harbhajan said before joining the conditioning camp that began in Bangalore on Tuesday India were fully capable of beating hosts Sri Lanka at home.

“They know their conditions and know the total which can help them win. But having beaten them 6-1 in India last year, Sri Lanka obviously know we are a very different side now.”

India won 18 out of 24 one-dayers against Sri Lanka, South Africa, Pakistan and England before West Indies beat them in May. Sri Lanka defeated India in their previous two meetings in a final at home — by 18 runs in a tri-series last year and by 25 runs in the 2004 Asia Cup — and are currently on a high after beating England away 5-0.

“They apply pressure on the batsmen by using their spinners very well in the middle overs and their fielding is top class,” Harbhajan said.

“We always got good starts out there, but didn’t continue that well in the middle overs and that’s where we lost the games.”

Harbhajan blamed the West Indies one-day series defeat on poor Indian batting.

“They (West Indies) were not scoring more than 240-250, which are scores we should be successfully chasing any day with the kind of batting we have,” he said.

India managed to wipe the memory of the poor one-day show by winning their first test series in the Caribbean in 35 years. Victory in the final test handed the Indians a 1-0 win.