India's captain Sourav Ganguly is banking on the form of the younger players to clinch the crucial fifth and final one-day international against Zimbabwe on Tuesday. "It will be very encouraging if we win this vital match and series with the help of youngsters," said Ganguly. "I am really happy with Yuvraj's performance in the last match. I've always maintained he is a very talented batsman. I hope he keeps playing big knocks consistently."

The Indian captain denied his team was under pressure going into the decider, saying he was confident of clinching the series. India have the knack of choking under big-match pressure, having lost nine finals of one-day international tournaments since April 1999.

"I'm sure things will turn around this time," Ganguly said. "It has to turn around some day. We need to play aggressively like we did in the last game."

Zimbabwean captain Stuart Carlisle said his team had plans to curb the strokeplay of Yuvraj and the other Indian batsmen.

"We are working out a way to tackle Yuvraj," said Carlisle. I'm sure you don't expect me to reveal the strategy. We just want to keep it to the basics."

Carlisle said he expected more runs from the top-order batsmen as the team had been regularly falling 20-30 runs short of pre-match expectations."It is only by scoring more that we can put pressure on India."

It is unclear whether India will field leading spinner Harbhajan Singh, who was injured on Monday after being assaulted by police outside the team hotel. According to an employee of the hotel: "Harbhajan is bleeding profusely and his hands are bruised."

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