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Kiwis seek perfect warm-up

After doodling away most of their time in the rain-marred tour opener at Pune, the New Zealanders are looking for a perfect warm-up game when they take on Board President's eleven in a three-day match at the Barkatullah Khan stadium in Jodhpur tomorrow.

Starved of proper practice sessions before coming to India due to weather conditions at home and then in Bombay and Pune, the Kiwis are desperately depending on this lone encounter to tune up and get their act together ahead of the first Test at Mohali from October 10.

In fact, their desperation is not without reason. For those teams which are accustomed to as different conditions as India and New Zealand, adaptability is the buzzword. And it is no surprise that the Kiwis' newly-appointed coach David Trist kept stressing on the importance of the adaptability factor to the Indian conditions, saying it would base the success.

With sweat dripping down their face and playing gear soaked from the tiring effort at the nets, the visitors presented a determined countenance on the eve of the match, which indicated business. And Trist appeared to be a contented mortal after his crew had a grinding practice session.

The practice was necessary as the dismal batting performance (135 for six in 44 overs) in a single session game at Pune had sent alarm bells ringing in the Kiwi camp.

''We have to discipline all departments of the game, especially batting which had been mediocre in England, to put up a better show,'' said New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming.

Even though the team is riding high on their 2-1 series success over England recently, Fleming's young band realises how hard it is to dominate the Indians, especially the spinners who will be nasty customers and main showmen on the designer tracks.

The Board President's XI will not be pushovers. Five of the 14-member squad have played international cricket and many of them belong to the India 'A' side which faced Australia a in Los Angeles recently.

Board President's skipper Hrishikesh Kanitkar, while admitting it is difficult to find the right combination in such selection games, is confident of each member putting his best foot forward. Stakes will be high for Maharashtra allrounder, who has been in and out of the senior team for different reasons despite noticeable performances in domestic cricket, as also Delhi left-arm off spinner Rahul Sanghvi and Punjab offie Harbhajan Singh.

The new ball is expected to be shared by the bustling Uttar Pradesh bowler Ashish Winston Zaidi and Delhi left-arm medium pacer Ashish Nehra, who made his Test debut against Sri Lanka in the Asian Test championship this year.

In view of one slot vacant in the middle-order, if Mohammad Azharuddin is not considered, Vikram Rathore, Gagan Khoda, Virendra Shewag and Hrishikesk Kanitkar will be wanting to impress the selectors, who will meet in Bombay on October 6, to pick the team for the first Test.

The teams:
New Zealand (from): Stephen Fleming (captain), Matthew Bell, Matthew Horne, Craig Spearman, Nathan Astle, Craig McMillan, Chris Harris, Adam Parore (wk), Dion Nash, Chris Cairns, Shayne O'Connor, Andrew Penn, Chris Drum, Paul Wiseman and Daniel Vettori.
Board President's XI (from): Hrishikesh Kanitkar (captain), Vikram Rathore, Gagan Khoda, Sameer Dighe (wk), Virendra Shewag, Devendra Bundela, P Malick, Harbhajan Singh, Rahul Sanghvi, Ashish Nehra, Ashish Winston Zaidi, Sanjay Bangar, Rajeev Nayyar and J P Yadav.

Umpires: Sudhir Ashnani (Indore) and K Parthasarathy (Vishakhapatnam).

UNI