Cricket comes to Eden Gardens on Christmas Eve

It's hard to imagine a day-night match at Eden Gardens with just 40,000 egging India on. Renovation work for the 2011 World Cup meant the historic ground is now shy of four blocks and reduced to less than half its capacity.

It's hard to imagine a day-night match at Eden Gardens with just 40,000 egging India on. Renovation work for the 2011 World Cup meant the historic ground is now shy of four blocks and reduced to less than half its capacity.

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That, however, should not be a major concern for most cricketers. But what can be is the land breeze getting channelised towards the wicket from either side of the B.C. Roy Club House where the stands have been demolished. Breeze from the Maidan blowing diagonally across the wicket could make the ball do a bit, especially in the evening.

The second factor to consider is dew, which has made chasing at Eden look rather easy in the past. The heavy fog that has hung over the Maidan area in the wee hours of the morning in the last few days could be a sign of things to come when India take on Sri Lanka in the fourth match of the series on Thursday.

It will be difficult for the spinners to grip the ball, which is likely to get wet every time it goes to the outfield.
Going by his experience here, stand-in skipper Virender Sehwag said he would rather factor the known and choose to field first if India won the toss and did not believe the breeze would be much of a problem as they look to wrap up the series even before the cricket caravan reaches Delhi.

India had done a better job in the last five-match one-day series early this year, winning it with two matches to spare in Colombo, but then the Tillakaratne Dilshan factor had not started to take effect. It was just that India had to ensure they did not give wickets to Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan and that did the trick.

Murali is not there this time and Mendis has been hardly as effective since the Indian batsmen have adopted the strategy of attacking from the word go. But the way Dilshan, Upul Tharanga and Kumar Sangakkara have batted at the top in the first three matches gave Sri Lanka enough confidence to leave out someone like Sanath Jayasuriya and play an extra spinner. But with the middle-order failing to deliver in the third match in Cuttack, the visitors might reconsider their strategy and include Jayasuriya, at least to bolster the middle order.

The 40-year-old left-hander was seen opening the batting at an optional training session on Wednesday that Dilshan, Sangakkara and even Mahela Jayawardene, who has not been among the tuns, skipped.

India will be without skipper Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh in the middle-order as well and though Sri Lanka's coach Trevor Bayliss saw things differently. Bayliss felt India were at a bigger advantage because Sri Lanka are missing five of their regulars, that could well be the difference on Christmas Eve.

The pressure will be on the visitors as they fight to keep the series alive.

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