SCG may surprise India

SYDNEY, Jan 1 (AFP/Reuters): Steve Waugh's Australia will continue to batter India with fiery pace as they bid to record their seventh consecutive Test win when the third and final Test starts here on Sunday.

The Australians, 2-0 up in the series, have been encouraged by an unusually well-grassed Sydney Cricket Ground pitch, described by curator Tom Parker as the fastest in 20 years.

"It's pretty grassy, I have never seen a wicket like that in my career," Waugh said today as his team took a day off to spend the New Year with their families.

"It's going to be quick and bouncy and there's a lot of grass there so it will suit the quick bowlers."

That is bad news for Sachin Tendulkar's men, who found the Aussie pace too hot to handle in the first two Tests, losing by margins of 285 and 180 runs.

The normally slow and low SCG wicket, a haven for spinners in the past, was expected to provide India with their best chance of stopping the rampaging Australians.

Instead, the tourists find themselves facing an uphill struggle against the likes of tearaway Brett Lee, who returns to his home ground after snatching seven wickets on his Test debut in Melbourne earlier this week.

Australia, who won the World Cup in June, have not looked back since losing a Test series in Sri Lanka in September.

They swamped Zimbabwe in a one-off Test in Harare in October, whitewashed formidable Pakistan 3-0 at home in November and crushed India in the first two Tests.

A seventh win here will put Waugh just one match away from equalling the Australian record of Warwick Armstrong, who won eight in a row against England in 1920-21.

Waugh is, however, well short of the world record of 11 consecutive wins achieved by Clive Lloyd's all-conquering West Indies between 1983 and 1985.

"We all really want to create a new Australian record and that's winning eight in a row, and we have got two more to do that," Waugh said.

"But we have got to win this match first.

"We know India is a very good side and I don't think they have shown their best so far but we are going to make it as hard as possible for them.

"Winning is a habit and once you get used to it, you want to keep doing it."

While Australia are expected to retain the same team which won the Melbourne Test, India are struggling to find a replacement for injured opener Sadagopan Ramesh.

The left-hander broke his left thumb fending a vicious lifter from Lee in Melbourne, forcing the Indians to fall back on the out-of-touch Devang Gandhi.

Gandhi, who was dropped after making four and zero in the first Test at Adelaide, is set to return mainly because he is the only other opener in the side besides Venkat Laxman.

Tendulkar, named man-of-the-match in the second Test after defiant knocks of 116 and 52, said the absence of a good start put his team under pressure in both Tests.

India's best opening start in the four innings so far has been 11, and the problems have been compounded further by the poor form of Rahul Dravid at number three.

"We really have to pull up our socks in batting," Tendulkar said. "I know we are capable of doing better."

To mark the first Test match of the new millennium, Australia's players have decided to take a stroll back in time.

Waugh has asked his players to abandon their traditional baggy green caps for replicas of the skull caps worn by Australia's players in the first Test of the last century.

"You have got to know where you have come from to know where you are going, I think that's important in sport," Waugh said.

Australia have other reasons to celebrate, with Mark Waugh playing his 100th Test in front of his home crowd and leg-spinner Shane Warne five wickets away from surpassing Dennis Lillee's Australian record of 355 wickets.

Warne had been hoping to get the record in Melbourne but was restricted to only two wickets. He now very much wants to get the five he needs in Australia's final home match of the 1999-2000 season.

Waugh said he expected his top strike bowler to reach his target in Sydney.

Sydney is one of Warne's favourite hunting grounds. He made his Test debut against India there in 1992 and claimed his 300th test victim there against South Africa two years ago.

LIKELY TEAMS

INDIA: Sachin Tendulkar (capt), Venkat Laxman, Devang Gandhi, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Mannava Prasad, Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Ajit Agarkar, Venkatesh Prasad.

AUSTRALIA: Steve Waugh (capt), Greg Blewett, Michael Slater, Justin Langer, Mark Waugh, Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, Damien Fleming, Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee.

Umpires: Ian Robinson (Zimbabwe) and Darryl Hair (Australia).