By Anil - 9 March, 2003
March 9 2003

The myth that India has a weakness against pace was blown to pieces after their brilliant performance against Pak's bowlers - the best pace attack in this World Cup. Australian and English media, never known to shy away from distorting facts or indulging in sadly wishful thinking, have worked hard to try and prove that India's batting lineup, acknowledged as the best in the world, have a weakness against pace.

That particular urban myth may have never looked as foolish as when India played Pakistan. A pace attack comprising Wasim Akram, the best bowler to have played ODI cricket; Shoaib Akhtar, the fastest bowler in the world, and Waqar Younis, the other half of one of the best fast bowling partnership cricket has seen, was taken to the cleaners by Indian batsmen: all the way from Sachin Tendulkar to Virender Sehwag to Mohammed Kaif to Rahul Dravid to Yuvraj Singh.

So what are the Aussies crowing about?

Perhaps they believe that McGrath is better than Wasim Akram? No way, says Wisden and most knowledgeable fans. Are they suggesting that Lee is faster than Shoaib? Sorry, the speed gun disagrees. And does medium pace trundler Bichel come even close to approaching Waqar, another of the best in ODI cricket?

The truth is that the Aussies like to talk up non-existent strengths. But for all that, their team is good largely for bullying and abusing, a fact their Kiwi brethren understand very well, and have taken advantage of on a frequent basis. NZ beat Australia in several ODI games in Australia when the teams last met, knocking them out of a 3-way tournament in the process. Which is perhaps why Ponting has announced his team's intention to target Fleming just as they did Jayasuriya. Lee, who is widely suspected of chucking (as is the quicker Shoaib), injured Jayasuriya's arm in their last game against Lanka.

But not only is the classy Indian batting lineup more than a match for Australia's above-average pace attack, even India's pace attack comprising Srinath, Zaheer, and Nehra appears to be as good as Australia's, and has more variety.

Aus did manage to win an early pool match when India was completely out of sorts. But:

Fact: Lee deserved none of the 3 wickets that he got in the match against India - each of those were gifted by rusty Indian batsmen playing rash strokes off wide deliveries.

Fact: Tendulkar was looking ominous, smashing both Lee and McGrath repeatedly to the fence. Gillespie, although he was easily Aus's best bowler (and significantly, is no longer in their team due to injury), should not have got Sachin Tendulkar's wicket - the dubious LBW given by 63 year old umpire David Shepherd was headed down leg, and a few inches above the stumps.

Fact: India was hugely out of sorts at that point, and even Holland bowlers had bowled well at them in the previous match. However, India has peaked at the right time, whereas Australia is flagging as seen in their pool match against England, a rank poor effort that should have seen them defeated by one of the weaker teams in the Cup.

Fact: India's match against Aus will have served as a good rehearsal for the World Cup final they are widely expected to play against Australia, whose bag of tricks will be empty at that time. Sourav and company can be expected to serve up their sledging best against them, quite apart from the more imrportant fact that their batsmen will dispatch the Aussie pacemen to the boundaries every bit as brutally and frequently as they did Pakistan's. While the Indian pacemen and spinners should easily run through Australia's notoriously fragile middle order, once the top 3 are taken care of.