Cricket: Tuffey, McMillan recalled as axe wielded again

8.45am - By MARK GEENTY

JOHANNESBURG - New Zealand's cricket selectors have gambled on Daryl Tuffey taking on the rampant Indian batsmen after just five World Cup overs as they chase a semifinal spot here tonight (9pm New Zealand time).

Tuffey today replaced Andre Adams while Craig McMillan returned for Lou Vincent as the selection musical chairs continued from Sir Richard Hadlee -- who was blunt in his assessment of Adams and Vincent.

It seemed a high pressure stage on which to bring back Tuffey, who has sat out six straight matches since going for 36 runs off five overs against Sri Lanka on February 10.

Despite Tuffey requiring plenty of overs under his belt to get him into form, Hadlee was willing to take a punt on the player of the series from the Indian tour of New Zealand who took 12 one-day wickets at 18 runs apiece.

"They practise and train for this, and it cannot be used as an excuse. After bowling so well against India back home, even in bowler-friendly conditions, Daryl may have a bit of an edge," said Hadlee, who also saved some barbs for Adams.

"Andre's been disappointing, particularly at the death. He hasn't quite responded right throughout the tour in that role, in fact he's proved very expensive.

"We're not so sure about his state of mind to step up and do the job any more."

Adams took one for 54 off five overs against Zimbabwe then one for 46 off nine in the 96-run loss to Australia on Tuesday.

The McMillan situation was a strange selection u-turn after Hadlee dropped him for the Australia game with concern over "technical issues".

Hadlee conceded that McMillan had formed a useful opening partnership with captain Stephen Fleming -- adding 89 against South Africa, 71 against Bangladesh and 19 against Zimbabwe.

Vincent was also given the message in no uncertain terms after his seven off 20 balls on Tuesday which followed one against Sri Lanka and nine against the West Indies.

"We felt a little bit let down against Australia. Lou had a chance to step up and do something, and it's been a pretty disappointing tournament for him," Hadlee said.

"We're backing Craig McMillan's experience on the proviso he tightens his game up a little bit and bats more time."

Both selections should add more of an edge to an already desperate situation for the Black Caps -- lose and they are on the first plane to Auckland, or win and they return to Port Elizabeth for a semifinal against Australia.

Fleming though said the team had responded well to sudden death, having won five straight after losing to Sri Lanka.

"We've been up against the wall the whole time, if anything we've played our poorest cricket when we've had a life," Fleming said.

"Against Australia we had to win one of the next two, we lost it so we're back to familiar territory and we seem to play better when we're in that state."

Fleming was at pains to play down his post-Australia comments of "opening old Indian wounds" from the home series, saying all the mental baggage would have been "well and truly discarded".

India have already booked their semifinal against Kenya in Durban and their top three batsmen Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and captain Sourav Ganguly are in peak form after savaging Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Their useful bowling trio of Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra are also on the confident roll they began in New Zealand.

Ganguly played down any talk of India resting key players and taking it easy against New Zealand.

He said he would rather see Sri Lanka head off New Zealand, and backed them to do a better job of taking on the Australians on a slow Port Elizabeth pitch.

"If we beat New Zealand then Sri Lanka get an opportunity to qualify for the semifinals, they could be a handy side at Port Elizabeth where the ball has turned a lot," Ganguly said.

"The pressure is now on New Zealand, they have to qualify for the semifinals."

New Zealand: Stephen Fleming (captain), Craig McMillan, Nathan Astle, Scott Styris, Chris Cairns, Brendon McCullum, Chris Harris, Jacob Oram, Daniel Vettori, Daryl Tuffey, Shane Bond.

India (from): Sourav Ganguly (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Mohammad Kaif, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Mongia, Harbhajan Singh, Javagal Srinath, Ashish Nehra, Zaheer Khan, Anil Kumble, Ajit Agarkar, Sanjay Bangar, Parthiv Patel.

Umpires: Peter Willey (England), Daryl Harper (Australia). Third umpire: Darrell Hair (Australia).

- NZPA


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