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Gilly planning to run hot in warm-up

Source: The Australian - October 12, 2006

Australia's opening warm-up match of its Champions Trophy campaign in steamy Mumbai today may yet prove to be the closest-fought match of the underwhelming tournament to date.

Ricky Ponting's team is scheduled to tackle a Maharashtra state XI in a 50-over hit-out at Wankhede Stadium as the Australians prepare for their opening match of the tournament in a week.

That game will be against the loser of Saturday's final qualifying fixture between the West Indies and Sri Lanka.

Even though their planned training session in Mumbai yesterday morning was postponed due to heavy overnight rain, the Australians have indicated they will play their trial games at full throttle.

Vice-captain Adam Gilchrist served notice to the local bowlers that, after a five-month lay-off from competitive cricket, he won't be aiming to simply occupy the crease as he re-acquaints himself with timing and concentration.

"In the couple of games we play, I'll just try and bat as I normally would," Gilchrist said. "If I pull my horns in and get too tentative, then I'll probably just get out and that defeats the purpose.

"So I've just got to bat.

"I'll go through all the normal training sessions and try and get a decent amount of work under my belt for the next four or five days.

"And then I'll taper off a bit leading into the big games."

Gilchrist's bigger challenge in today's practice match and the subsequent warm-up fixture against Mumbai on Sunday is to get some meaningful wicketkeeping practice.

The 34-year-old conceded that limited-overs cricket on flat, subcontinental pitches is heavily dominated by batsmen and not too many deliveries find their way past the edge.

His primary role over the next month as he prepares himself for the Ashes series starting on November 23 will be running back and forth to the stumps to accept returns from his fielders.

"India is a hard place to get any rhythm as a keeper, particularly in one-day cricket because you don't tend to glove too many balls," he said.

Australia's first opponent of this tour, Maharashtra, remains the poor relation of first-class cricket in the sprawling west Indian state with a population of almost 100million.

While Mumbai's team is the powerhouse of Indian cricket with a scattering of international players including Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan and local deity Sachin Tendulkar, the Pune-based Maharashtra team has not lifted the national first-class trophy in 65 years.

The Maharashtra Cricket Association has attempted to address that, with an ill-fated decision to appoint former Australia assistant coach Darren Holder as its coaching director.

However, Holder quit the job last month amid working visa problems.

The struggling regional side has also recently pursued several overseas players including ex-Test bowlers Darren Gough (England) and Jermaine Lawson (West Indies) but has so far failed to secure a big-name signature.

But on the evidence of the qualifying matches that have preceded the main section of the Champions Trophy schedule, today's lopsided practice match looms as a game of major appeal.

The International Cricket Council's decision to play a tournament within the tournament to ensure the two best teams from the four lowest-ranked nations on the official world ratings make the main draw has failed to generate public interest.

Even in cricket-crazy India, yesterday's tawdry affair between Sri Lanka and an embarrassingly inferior Zimbabwe drew but a handful of spectators to the cavernous Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad.

Set 286 to win, the Zimbabwean batsmen abandoned the chase in the seventh over at three wickets down.

From there, the batsmen opted for practice in the middle as they dawdled along at barely two runs per over at one stage before being bowled out for 141.

With cricket in their homeland reduced to a rabble by political instability and interference, the Zimbabweans were doubtless grateful for some high quality training time.

But having been dismissed for 85 in their previous match against the West Indies, the African nation's presence here has been questioned and the value of the qualifying matches criticised.

- ANDREW RAMSEY