An opportunity for both teams

With their match practice in the tour opener against India A restricted to just 44 overs, the New Zealanders will be keen to get as much play as possible in the second game against the Board President's XI which commences at Jodhpur from October 5, especially since this three day game is their last fixture before the first Test beginning at Mohali from October 10. Sure, they would also like to win for there is nothing like a morale boosting victory, particularly on the eve of a Test. But obviously the priority of the tour management will be to give their batsmen and bowlers as much match practice as possible. Indeed, if there is a choice during the game of going for a win and opting for match practice, one suspects that the tourists will opt for the latter.

The New Zealanders did not exactly cover themselves with glory at Pune. They floundered against both pace and spin and could only score 135 for six in the limited time available to them. Unless they get three days of sunshine at Jodhpur the visiting team's batsmen will not be in the right frame of mind to tackle the reasonably strong Indian attack. The bowlers who did not get a look in at Pune, will be keen to bowl as much as they can at Jodhpur so that they can adapt themselves to Indian conditions before taking on Tendulkar and company in the first Test.

The young hopefuls representing the Board President's XI will be wishing that they have better luck than their colleagues who played for India A. With the match restricted to just about half a day, only the bowlers could be seen in action by the selectors and they were impressive enough with all the five principal bowlers picking up at least one wicket in the few overs available to them. But batsmen like Amol Muzumdar, Devang Gandhi and Wasim Jaffar missed out on a chance to catch the selectors' eye.

The Board President's XI is a well balanced outfit. Led by Hrishikesh Kanitkar, the team includes Vikram Rathour, Gagan Khoda, Sameer Dighe, Virender Shewag, Harbhajan Singh, Rahul Sanghvi, Ashish Nehra and Ashish Winston Zaidi. One can only hope that the match is not affected by rain and that the wicket and weather conditions are ideal for three days of non stop cricket. This will give the talented youngsters on the Board President's XI a chance to prove their worth, as well as provide the visitors badly needed match practice before the first big game of the tour.