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iCricketer.com NewsDesk |
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India
to recover one-day form, forecasts Harbhajan
MUMBAI: India will
bounce back from the 4-1 one-day series defeat in West Indies in May and win
an overdue trophy in next month's triangular series in Sri Lanka, leading
off-spinner Harbhajan Singh forecast.
South Africa are the
third team in the August 14-29 tournament.
Harbhajan said before
joining the conditioning camp that began in Bangalore on Tuesday India were
fully capable of beating hosts Sri Lanka at home.
"They know their
conditions and know the total which can help them win. But having beaten
them 6-1 in India last year, Sri Lanka obviously know we are a very
different side now."
India
won 18 out of 24 one-dayers against Sri Lanka, South Africa, Pakistan and
England before West Indies beat them in May.
Sri Lanka
defeated India in their previous two meetings in a final at home -- by 18
runs in a tri-series last year and by 25 runs in the 2004 Asia Cup -- and
are currently on a high after beating England away 5-0.
"They apply pressure
on the batsmen by using their spinners very well in the middle overs and
their fielding is top class," Harbhajan said.
"We always got good
starts out there, but didn't continue that well in the middle overs and
that's where we lost the games."
Harbhajan blamed the
West Indies one-day series defeat on poor Indian batting.
He said: "They (West
Indies) were not scoring more than 240-250, which are scores we should be
successfully chasing any day with the kind of batting we have."
India
managed to wipe the memory of the poor one-day show by winning their first
test series in the Caribbean in 35 years. Victory in the final test handed
the Indians a 1-0 win.
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