Stick prize tags on your wickets: Dravid tells batsmen

Trelawny, Jamaica, Mar 7 (UNI) Team India skipper Rahul Dravid wants his frontline batsmen to stick prize tags for their wickets as he believes crucial World Cup games could be decided on how one set batsman performs in slow Caribbean pitches.

Dravid led from the front with a well-compiled 74 in his side's 182-run crushing defeat of the Netherlands on a pitch with early life and seam movement.

Sachin Tendulkar warmed up on a confident note with a fluent 61 and the experienced duo put on 116 runs for the fourth wicket to post an imposing 300 for nine.

The pitch later slowed down and part-time bowler Yuvraj Singh (four for 12) and specialist spinners Anil Kumble (two for 14) and Harbhajan Singh (two for 24) later exploited it to shot out the Dutch for 118.

''The wickets are expected to be a bit slow,'' Dravid said.

''In tighter and closer games, the one batsman who gets set on these wickets will have to go on.

''It is not going to be easy for a new batsman to come in and rotate the strike easily.

''In this tournament we will see (only) one or two big scores in each innings,'' said the Indian captain after the warm-up game.

Dravid said conditions could be the same in Port-of- Spain, Trinidad where India play their Group B matches against 1996 winners Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and debutants Bermuda.

He said teams would have to adjust to the slow pitches and revise batting plans.

''We have to be flexible and play according to the conditions,'' he said.

UNI