By Nazvi Careem
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 19 - Organisers of the
tri-series will be holding their breath on Wednesday when India
take on West Indies, knowing that only a victory will keep the
Asian side in with a chance of reaching Sunday's final.
The warm-up tournament for next month's Champions Trophy is
heavily backed by India's cricket governing body BCCI and
ticket sales have only been brisk on days when the Indian team
are in action.
The only time the 3,500 capacity Kinrara Oval has been near
capacity was on Saturday, when India's match against Australia
was abandoned because of rain.
Having lost to West Indies in their first match, India must
win their last two matches, including a Friday clash with
Australia, to reach the final.
Malaysia has a large ethnic Indian population, but most of
them have little interest in cricket.
The majority of the fans who have turned up to watch them
are school children or expatriate Indians.
On the field, India are facing an uphill battle, though
they could be forgiven for believing they have been hard done
by.
After posting a challenging 309 against West Indies, they
lost the rain-shortened match on the Duckworth-Lewis method.
And despite a batting collapse against Australia, the points
were eventually shared after rain forced the match to be
abandoned.
Indian coach Greg Chappell said he was not looking beyond
the West Indies match.
"We have to win the first one, then think about winning two
in a row," Chappell told reporters. "We haven't really had a
whole game to see where we are at."
West Indies can relax knowing that they are already in the
final after beating Australia by three wickets on Monday.
Skipper Brian Lara said he was hoping to use the match to
solidify their brittle middle-order, which collapsed against
Australia last week and nearly repeated the feat on Monday.
"We came here to make the final and it would have been a
shame if we had to stop (after the India game)." Lara said.
"Certainly, we have one game to try and address the
situation (in the middle order) but I have a lot of faith in my
team"