A time to kill

BARODA: For an inconsistent, under-performing team and a struggling, but talented individual, Wednesday offers the best chance of redemption. As India go into the fourth and final one-dayer against the West Indies at the IPCL ground here, with a 2-1 lead in the series, there is plenty that can be achieved by winning this game than merely ending up numerically as the better team.

Other than instilling some necessary confidence and a winning habit in Rahul Dravid & Co before the World Cup, defeating the West Indies in a crunch game would help put much of the bad memories of the gone season behind. To do it against an opposition against which the awful run started in the first place — the 1-4 defeat in the ODI series in the Caribbeans — around the same time last year must still be hurting every member of the team who was part of the that tour - would be all the more sweet.

The D-day also holds tremendous importance for a certain Irfan Pathan. The golden boy of Indian cricket has turned into a problem child in almost the same phase in which the team has disappointed. The left-arm seamer faces a test of fire. He has been accommodated after excluding S Sreesanth from the final 12 - Gautam Gambhir, who had to make way for Sourav Ganguly, Suresh Raina and Ramesh Powar have also been barred by the ‘men who matter’ from Wednesday’s game.

On a pitch which looks like a batting paradise, the local boy has to prove himself all over again in international cricket, specifically with the ball, against the likes of an unstoppable on his day Chris Gayle, a fit-again Shivnaraine Chanderpaul, an old, but nevertheless a genius, Brian Lara, not to mention talented bats like Devon Smith and Runako Morton. The only relief that could come his, and India’s way, is if Marlon Samuels, the hero of the last contest between the two teams at Chennai, pulls out. Samuels, who scored a match-winning 98 to shape the Windies’ win along with Lara on Saturday, hurt the index finger of his left hand in the that game, and had gone for a precautionary x-ray on Tuesday.

However, if Lara’s words on match eve are to be believed, Samuels may just make it. “We know the importance of this game. I don’t want to go back after losing 1-3 from here. I have asked guys to play even if they are 75 per cent fit.” The other player in the West Indian line-up who is struggling for fitness at the moment is all-rounder Dwayne Bravo, who hurt his shoulder in the last game while taking a 4-39 that restricted India to a much lower score than they would ever have imagined after the Robin Uthappa blitzkrieg that day.

Coming back to Pathan, the swing bowler would have to showcase all the improvement that he was expected to make once he was sent back from the South African tour to domestic cricket about a month back.

And in one go. Dravid, in uncharacteristic bluntness, outlined this clearly, when the skipper said on match eve that “the proof of the pudding lies in its eating. We are looking forward to seeing him bowl. Only how he performs tomorrow will tell us how much, or if, Pathan has improved. I hope he does that, because he is very important to us”. A pasting here means the pacer, who conceded figures of 0-48 in six overs the last time he played for India in an ODI, can kiss the World Cup a good bye.

Wednesday would see the unveiling of another new opening pair for India in ODIs as the destructive Robin Uthappa, who has taken the first steps towards star status with a hard-hitting 70 in the last game, partners Sourav Ganguly, who returns after missing out in Chennai.

India’s best opportunity of going into the World Cup with their tails up lies here. For Pathan, the next 24 hours are critical. He would do well to adhere to the theme Australian psychologist Sandy Gordon gave to Team India before the 2003 World Cup: ‘Now or Never’.