Chak De India!

LORDS: Perhaps it is one of the quirks of Lords that the pre-match conference was held in the museum, but Rahul Dravid would have fancied getting some memorabilia from Saturday’s final in this august enclosure. How about a picture of him holding up the NatWest Trophy?

That would be just reward for the splendid turnaround effected by the Indian team over the past week, and would round off a hugely successful tour. But Dravid was under no illusions that this would require eight hours of sustained motivation and hard work from his players.

“We’ve done well to get this far,” said the Indian captain, “but will have to do better to win. This is a battling English team.” Dravid could be faulted for understating both premises, but not their truth value. It’s been a needle series producing perhaps the best cricket seen in this country since the 2005 Ashes — and everybody expects a heady climax.

There was tension in the air when both teams came for nets, as it would be on the eve of a ‘final’, the edginess of the players coming through in the drills. The English camp appeared just that bit more under pressure, and understandably so, because not only has India grabbed the psychological advantage, but the home team’s fitness problems continue.

England’s biggest worry, of course, is big Freddie Flintoff’s big ankle. Owais Shah’s sparkling hundred, Luke Wright’s superb debut and Dmitri Mascarenhas’s sensational hitting offset the loss of Flintoff the batsman. But his bowling was sorely missed at the Oval, especially in the final overs when Robin Uthappa was hitting the others all over the park. Flintoff was given a steroid injection, and subsequently did not complain of pain, but the decision to include him or not was deferred for the morrow.

There was minor concern in the Indian camp too over Ramesh Powar’s sore right hand, which he grazed badly while making a diving stop at the Oval, but the off-spinner, who could play a crucial role in Saturday’s game, was cleared by the end of the net session. India would like to continue with seven batsmen, which has seen them post two 300-plus totals, and the only change being contemplated was RP Singh returning in place of Agarkar.

London’s been warm over the past couple of days, and the strong sun beating down on the Lords pitch will have made it harder, truer and a batting beauty, with the slow bowlers likely to be the more difficult to handle than the seamers. Unless, of course, the weather changes.

India’s strong suit has been the batting, and Dravid will be hoping for an encore from his frontliners. The cynosure of attention will obviously be Sachin Tendulkar, whose dazzling strokeplay has sent writers and broadcasters scurrying to find new superlatives. This will be his last innings on English soil, and Tendulkar would surely like to go out with a bang.

Under lesser scrutiny, and not having made public whether they will play again in England or not, both Dravid and Ganguly too would like to leave their impress in this match. Both, it might be recalled, had made their debut in the same Test on this ground in 1996.

The Oval match may be difficult to surmount for sheer tension, thrill and finale, but undoubtedly it has sent the interest level in this series soaring, especially amongst Indian supporters who have swooped down on London from all over. A tout operating just outside St John’s station, a stone’s throw from Lords, claimed that he had been able to sell tickets at four times their face value. “I will buy at double the price, you have any spare, lots of demand from your people,” he asked.

After the traumatic World Cup, this has been a fascinating tour, one which could signal the revival of Indian cricket. Winning the triangular competition, the Test series and this trophy would complete a tremendous hat-trick.

History beckons Dravid and Co.