The Hindu : Draw disappoints Ganguly

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 04, 2002

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Draw disappoints Ganguly

By S. Sabanayakan

The cricket captain, Sourav Ganguly, with the Exide Cup at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Sunday. India won the three-match Test series 2-0 after the third Test ended in a draw. — Photo: V.V. Krishnan

KOLKATA NOV. 3. Indian captain Sourav Ganguly expressed disappointment after India failed to make a clean sweep of the Test series as the third and final Test against the West Indies ended in a draw at the Eden Gardens here on Sunday.

"Obviously, we are disappointed in failing to win the series 3-0. The West Indies played very well in this game,'' he said during the post match press conference.

Defending his decision not to declare the Indian second innings to enliven the game, Ganguly said he was actively considering to declare the innings at a suitable time but the opportunity he was looking for did not present itself. "We were looking at a total of 160 at lunch. Once we lost Sachin Tendulkar after lunch, the momentum of the innings suffered,'' he explained.

"At one point of time we were looking to give the West Indies a target of 250 or so in 45 overs. But the opportunity never came. With such a fast outfield and the pitch still playing well, one could not take hasty decisions. Anything could have happened this morning had we lost a couple of early wickets. We managed to get out of the trouble.''

Ganguly thought the Test series brought to the fore the talent of Parthiv Patel and the excellent bowling of Zaheer Khan. He said Javagal Srinath bowled well at Chennai and could have done a better job here.

When pointed out that two key players Zaheer and Tendulkar would be missing the one-day series, the Indian captain said, "it is better to get the injuries fixed now than aggravate them before the World Cup. We have a very tight schedule. Immediately after the one-day series against the West Indies we would be visiting New Zealand and two weeks after our return from there we would be travelling to South Africa for the World Cup,'' he said.

Speaking about the upcoming one-day series Ganguly said the team was pretty confident of doing well. "The West Indies is a pretty strong one-day side. It has a very good bowling attack. It is a handy one-day side. Its batting is also good.''

The West Indies skipper Carl Hooper expressed his disappointment in failing to force a win from a good position. "We did try to win this game. We were looking for an early breakthrough this morning but it did not come our way. By the time Tendulkar gave us a chance to dismiss him he had reached around 170 runs. The Windies side tried its level best to win this game,'' he opined. "What is most important is that you should see how hard you played in the entire series. I think we could identify our mistakes in the first two Tests where our catching and batting let us down. We did fairly well in this Test and was in a good position to force the victory,'' the Windies skipper summed up.

He said Tendulkar was a world class player and he took the game away from his side. "We enjoyed his batting.'' He said V.V.S. Laxman's role was one of supporting Tendulkar. "The two ensured India did not lose the game.''

On Harbhajan Singh, Hooper said: "He bowls well at home. When we saw him in the West Indies he was not even half as much threatening as he was in India.''

On the team's chances in the one-day series, Hooper said it was really important for his side to do well. "We have to mature as a good one-day side and we have seven good games coming up,'' he added.

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