England find that familiarity breeds greater respect

Snape may help Hussain to contain India's cavaliers and reach Champions Trophy semi-final

England and India come out slugging again tomorrow. It has been toe to toe stuff between them all year. From January to September, from Calcutta to Colombo via several places in between, they have kept on belting each other and continued to come back for more.

Tomorrow evening in the Premadasa Stadium they will meet for the 11th and final time in one-day internationals in 2002. There should be no problems of recognition. Nasser Hussain and Sourav Ganguly have shaken hands – or had them round throats – often enough to recognise each other's fingerprints.

The previous encounters have confirmed only how evenly matched they are. India have won five, England four with one wash-out. They have also won once each when the chips were down: England to level the series at 3-3 in the tautest of climaxes in Bombay last February, India to win the NatWest Series final in July when they thrillingly overhauled an England total of 325.

At stake this time is a place in the semi-finals of the ICC Champions Trophy, a stage in the competition which England have never reached. Given the length of their batting line-up and their close acquaintanceship with subcontinental pitches, India will start as favourites.

A week ago they might have been much more greatly fancied since England arrived here grudgingly, tired and ravaged by injury. It augured wretchedly. But Nasser Hussain's side responded by dominating the Pool 2 tie against Zimbabwe. Suddenly, they might have recognised (possibly by being in the company of all the great players from around the world who are staying in the same hotel) that while the Champions Trophy is not the priority among their winter assignments it is also the second most important of one-day tournaments, a mini-World Cup. It would be the biggest one-day prize England had ever won – in all senses as the winners receive $300,000 (£193,000).

The length of the injury list will be demonstrated on the team sheet. Only three players who appeared in the team which won in Bombay and lost at Lord's are certain to play – four if Ashley Giles is restored.

But that trio is crucial to progress. The opening partnership of Marcus Trescothick and Nick Knight make or break the team. If they both fail, England will surely lose, such is the lack of experience and natural one-day strength in their middle order. As captain and No 3, Hussain controls tactics: the idea is that he has got to know Ganguly better than Ganguly has got to know him.

To coin a vogue word which is frequently misused, India's batting order is awesome. It has cavaliers everywhere and if they lose four early wickets, as they did to Zimbabwe last Saturday, they still have enough left to post an intimidating total. At Lord's in the NatWest final they were five down for 146.

One man who is not seemingly fazed by this is Jeremy Snape, the equable England all-rounder and perhaps the purveyor of the slowest ball in international cricket.

Snape, who has been in and out of the side for a year, is now in again, which is remarkable considering he was in Gloucestershire's second team for much of the summer.

"It's been a fantastic year for me," he said. "I've tried to add more variety to my bowling especially but the slower ball still has a place. I think I know what the batsman's going to do, sweep or charge, or whatever." Snape's finest moment in an England shirt was perhaps having Sachin Tendulkar lbw in Madras last winter.

"The crowd were all cheering and shouting and then they all fell silent when he was out. I felt as if I had done something wrong." If Snape can repeat the feat tomorrow, England will be in the game.

Hussain's most important task will perhaps to be to win the toss, so England can bat. If the ball does anything at the Premadasa Stadium, it does it in the second innings when the pitch is slightly moist.

England will not relish chasing a target of 300. They will be grateful to get away from India for a while whatever happens, at least until the group stages of the World Cup when they meet again.