The Great Game Called Cricket...

KOLKATA: Nearing the end of a month-and-a-half of battles across the country, India and Sri Lanka come to the Eden Gardens counting their missing men.

Fans in this cricket-crazy city, starved of full-blown international encounters for the last couple of years, will be hoping there's enough left in the two teams to present another absorbing contest in Thursday's fourth ODI.

Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh, both irrepressible entertainers, may be among the latest casualties but their absence has done nothing to dim the clamour for entry passes here. Stand-in skipper Virender Sehwag added fuel to fire by suggesting "there are plenty of runs in the wicket", a strong enough pointer that there will be no let-up in Team India's aggressive approach as far as batting is concerned.

But, then, in a series devastatingly dominated by batsmen, bowlers are in a position to make a big impact by just hindering that free flow of runs. The Eden provides a wonderful window of opportunity to them.

The track, rolled into a fine flat surface, is still unlikely to break out of its character a slower and lower wicket which will frown upon the recent gay abandon in strokemaking. But, go tell that to Sehwag or Dilshan!

The two have lifted the contests to a slug-fest like never before, and will be crucial to the contest. It is here that India have held the edge, their middle-order able to soak the setback better than the Sri Lankans. Now, with the Dhoni-Yuvi hole in the Indian line-up, the onus will be on youngsters like Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina to provide the surefootedness, even if they cannot quite make up for all the firepower the missing duo would have brought.

The form of Sachin Tendulkar, who scored an unbeaten 96 as India took a 2-1 lead in Cuttack, will be a huge source of confidence for the camp. Will he be brought back to the middle-order under the changed circumstances?

With the slow bowlers likely to play a bigger role, just as they did in Cuttack on Monday, batsmen may not be called upon to relentlessly swish the blade as they had been doing before the bandwagon came east.

The dew factor is a much discussed subject in these parts in winter, and just how much it butts into Thursday's game will have to be seen. After the pre-match media briefings by the two teams, one thing seems almost certain India are going to chase. Drawn to the dew, Sri Lankan coach Trevor Bayliss indicated "it would still be better to put runs on the board" while Sehwag was more categorical with his "well bowl first if we win the toss".

Fans here will be hoping India get back to their winning ways at the Eden to clinch the five-match series here. While their last match here, against the Sri Lankans in February 2007, was washed out, India lost their previous three encounters by big margins and their last win here was some seven years ago.

Both camps stopped short of naming their playing XIs, but Sri Lanka will be tempted to bring in Sanath Jayasuriya for left-handed Thilina Kandamby. Though the visitors may stick to their new opening combination of Dilshan and Upul Tharanga and push the veteran to a middle-order slot, Jayasuriyas slow left-arm stuff could be pretty effective on the Eden track. India's Harbhajan Singh, Ravindra Jadeja and even Sehwag himself will see their chance as well.

One Mutthiah Muralitharan would have loved to flaunt his skills here. But, its not about the missing men anymore. Its about those that are left in the park.