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| February 20, 2003 | Thursday | Zul Hijjah 18, 1423 |
Rain may change Aussie strategy today
POTCHEFSTROOM (South Africa), Feb 19: Australia coach John Buchanan says rain could force his side to change their plans for the World Cup Group ‘A’ match against Holland on Thursday.
Earlier in the week, Buchanan indicated fast bowlers Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee might be rested for the world champions’ game against Roland Lefebvre’s part-timers.
However, heavy rain over the past four days has increased the likelihood of damp and seamer-friendly conditions.
“Our desire is to rest one or two of the quicks,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “But, if the weather continues like this, it may affect the final make-up of our team and our options.
“It might mean our spin bowling options decrease and it may force us to increase our pace bowling options, but we will wait until the morning of the match to finalise that.”
The rain, which forced both sides to practice indoors on Wednesday, has placed a question mark over the game, although the ground has so far coped well with the amount of water.
If the match is rained off, it will rob Australia of a near-certain four points they would have expected to collect.
If the players do make it on to the field on Thursday, the contest is expected to be a mismatch but the Australia coach believes his team’s third cup outing will still produce some positives.
Teams (from):
AUSTRALIA: Ricky Ponting (captain), Adam Gilchrist, Michael Bevan, Andy Bichel, Jason Gillespie, Ian Harvey, Matthew Hayden, Brad Hogg, Brett Lee, Darren Lehmann, Jimmy Maher, Damien Martyn, Glenn McGrath, Andy Symonds.
HOLLAND: Roland Lefebvre (captain), Luuk van Troost, Daan van Bunge, Jacob Esmeijer, Victor Grandia, Feiko Kloppenburg, Tim de Leede, Henk Mol, Klaus van Noortwijk, Adeel Raja, Edgar Schiferli, Reinhout Scholte, Jeroen Smits, Nick Statham, Bas Zuiderent.
Umpires: David Orchard (South Africa) and Peter Willey (England).
TV umpire: Aleem Dar (Pakistan).
Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (Sri Lanka).—Reuters/AFP
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