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Win the toss and bowl
Wisden CricInfo staff - March 18, 2002
The Nehru Stadium at Guwahati has hosted nine one-day internationals, six of them featuring India. Zimbabwe have played here just once, against India in March 1993 – almost exactly nine years back. In a rain-restricted, 28-over-a-side match, India pulled through by seven wickets with three balls to spare.
India have had mixed results at this venue, winning three and losing as many.
Five out of the nine matches have been shortened due to rain or early-morning fog. The bowler-friendly conditions in the morning have prompted captains winning the toss to insert the opposition on seven occasions. India have been luckier with the toss than with results here. They have called correctly five times in six matches, and have chosen to field every time.
The final match results are not skewed so heavily in favour of teams batting second though – they have won five and lost four. However, in the five curtailed games, teams chasing have won four times.
The average 50-over score for teams batting first is 224; for teams chasing, it's just 203. West Indies's 306 for 6 against New Zealand in a Wills World Series match was the only occasion a team crossed 250. Carl Hooper's 111 in that match remains the only century at this venue.
Matches at the Nehru Stadium have tended to be one-sided: seven out of nine one-dayers have been won by a margin of greater than 45 runs, or with more than three overs to spare.
With captains inserting the opposition almost 80% of the time, one would expect the seamers to dominate here. But spinners have a better economy-rate (4.01 to 4.27) and a lower average (27 to 33.8).
Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid have struggled to get among the runs at Guwahati. Ganguly's two innings have fetched him a total of 29 runs, while Dravid scored 5 in his only innings here.
S Rajesh is sub editor of Wisden.com India.
© Wisden CricInfo Ltd
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