da betway： On Saturday West Indies, who havealready qualified for the semifinals of the Champions Trophy, take onEngland, who have no chance of qualifying to the next round.
The Preview by Anand Vasu at Ahmedabad27-Oct-2006
Moot question: Will Andrew Flintoff partner Steve Harmison tomorrow with the new ball? © Getty Images
It should have been the dodo among dead rubbers. On Saturday West Indies, who havealready qualified for the semifinals of the Champions Trophy, take onEngland, who have no chance of qualifying to the next round. The onlything to consider was what position West Indies would qualify in, but nowthe game, which will be played at the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium inMotera has piqued interest, as there’s a chancethe Andrew Flintoff will bowl for the first time since he suffered anankle injury.”There is a possibility, yes,” said Flintoff at a pre-match pressconference after a practice session, when asked whether he intended tobowl in the forthcoming match. “I have bowled in the nets over the pasttwo weeks or so, and the ankle has responded well to it. I have just done15-20 minutes, and if I don’t react to anything and I am fine, the chancesare I will bowl.”Flintoff the bowler has been one of the most imaginative and powerfulbowlers in the world in recent times. His deceptively quick deliveries,rearing into the rib-cage have posed problems for all sorts of batsmen,including the Australians. And so, whentalk of him returning to bowling does the rounds the excitement isunderstandable, and perhaps it got to one journalist, who asked ifFlintoff would go the whole hog and bowl ten overs if he picked up fivewickets in his first few overs. “I have no intentions of bowling my fullquota,” came the speedy reply, “under any circumstances.”Often, in recent times, you’ve heard the word pride being bandied aboutwhenever the West Indies come to town. For once, though, it was theopposition who had to think along those lines, as West Indies come intothe game with not just solid wins under their belt, but virtually everyplayer in good form. “We know this is a team that can fight back. AgainstPakistan in the summer in England, we came back from 2-0 down to draw2-2,” said Flintoff. “So the team does fight and has got lot of character.They also have a lot of pride and we will trying our damndest to win thegame, and take a win out of this tournament.”We obviously want to finish the tournament with a win,” Flintoffcontinued. “We have been beaten twice and we are playing for pride, andpride is a strong thing to play for. We want to win a game of cricket inIndia. The West Indies may be through and we may be going home, but westill want to put up a good show. We want to perform and want to go homewith a win.”When they do go home, though, don’t expect the English public to burneffigies of Flintoff and Duncan Fletcher and tar their homes just becausethey failed completely in a one-day tournament. That sort of thing happensonly in India and Pakistan. For most of England, little matters but theAshes, and naturally, that came up for discussion. “We have got a gameagainst the West Indies, which we are taking as an important game for usin our development,” said Flintoff, pausing for a moment at the presentbefore turning his attention back to the future. “Then we will make surewe go home and spend time with our families. Then when we get on the plane[to Australia], then obviously my attention will be focused on Australia.”The talk then shifted from England to West Indies, and inevitably it wentto Brian Lara. “He is up there, isn’t he? He is a fantastic player. Wehave been at the wrong end of Lara a couple of times,” said Flintoff. “Hedoes things that us mortals can’t. When he gets 400 at Antigua, makes mewish I could actually bat like him. He is one of the greats that the gamehas produced along with the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Steve Waugh andobviously going back to the days gone by. He is someone we respect becausehe is a fine player.”Who knows, with his back still nowhere near 100% strong, Lara might justchoose to sit out the game against England. If he does, it will be adisappointment for the fans, but England won’t mind at all. The last timethese two teams played each other in a one-dayer, it was in the final ofthis very tournament, two years ago at The Oval, and in the dying light ona gloomy September evening, the horns of Brixton trilled in unbridled joyas Courtney Brown and Ian Bradshaw steered West Indies to a stunning win.And now here we go again, on a lesser stage, almost certainly without thesame ambience, but it’s the same two teams, and who knows, we could be infor another cracker.