The Hindu : Ganguly's pat for Harbhajan, Patel

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 21, 2002

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Ganguly's pat for Harbhajan, Patel

Chennai Oct. 20. India captain Sourav Ganguly termed off-spinner Harbhajan Singh `a match-winner' following India's eight-wicket victory over the West Indies in the second Test at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium. He acknowledged the performance of leg-spinner Anil Kumble and added the pacemen too had done well under the conditions.

"Zaheer provided the breakthroughs, and Srinath bowled better here than he did in Mumbai. That is only to expected since he is returning to Test cricket,'' he said.

The captain was lavish in his praise for the young wicket-keeper batsman, Parthiv Patel. "He has been outstanding. His 'keeping is coming along very well, while his batting is proving to be handy.''

On him falling a victim to contentious verdicts time and again, Ganguly remarked, "That's the way life goes. In India, there is a lot of noise on the ground, and it is not always possible for the umpire to pick up the sound.'' He was in favour of more technology being used while addressing close decisions.

Ganguly was happy that when the middle-order could not quite deliver for once, the lower order batsmen like Harbhajan and Srinath chipped in usefully.

Hooper critical of his team

West Indian skipper Carl Hooper used strong words while describing the shallow performance of his team. ``It's a shame that a National side has come down to this level. There are no excuses, we played poor cricket. There was an improved batting performance in the second innings, but it is important for the settled batsmen to go on. We did not do that.'' He refused to cite the wicket as a reason for the debacle.

Caribbean coach Roger Harper said, "We are grasping little, literally, and figuratively.'' He was making a point about the West Indians not adapting and learning fast enough, and putting down so many catches.

`Man of the Match' Harbhajan Singh opined the West Indies, even without star batsman Brian Lara, was no pushover, and in Hooper, Chanderpaul, Sarwan and Wavell Hinds had a useful bunch of batsmen. "I feel I still need to improve in my bowling,'' he observed rather modestly.

He admitted to relishing the bounce of the Chepauk wicket, where he had performed also a match-winning role against the mighty Australia in 2001.

Parthiv Patel's 'keeping appears to have provided the spinners with more confidence. "He has been doing a great job. I think we have found a very good `keeper,'' Harbhajan said.

The Sardar was pleased too that he was able to contribute with the bat. "When you play for India, you have to do everything.''

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