The Hindu : Sport : Rahul Dravid rues decision to field first

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 23, 2006

Sport

Sport

Rahul Dravid rues decision to field first

Sports Reporter

A fantastic victory, says Flintoff

Mumbai: For an under-strength England, it doesn't get much sweeter, except perhaps a spot of Aussie bashing in the Ashes.

For India in India it doesn't get much worse — a series loss to Pakistan excluded. Consequently, Andrew Flintoff, who walked in after the series-tying victory, "checking my texts that are flooding", looked well-pleased; Dravid managed an upper lip so stiff his opponents would have approved, and said he would, in hindsight, have batted on winning the toss.

How did this win compare against the Ashes, Freddie? "Obviously last summer was huge. But, to come out here to India, to lose six of our top players, and to play with youngsters and win here for the first time in 20 years is fantastic. This morning, I was very positive, for India to get the better part of 300 would have been very tough. They still had a chance of winning, but we had the better of a wicket that was beginning to bounce and spin.

Incredible

"To just see the lads' faces in the huddle, these youngsters, even Shaun Udal at 37, who has only played a handful of games, was incredible."

Did he expect India to capitulate so easily? "To be honest we thought we'd be scrapping, forcing a result. When Rahul bats, he doesn't give away his wicket easy. He grinds you down, and with Sachin, they were playing well."

When did he think he had the match in hand? "When Dhoni hit it up the second time to Monty," he said to laughter. "He's been a bit of a thorn in our side — he's a tricky batsman to bowl at, and when we got him we thought we had done enough."

Crucial innings

Flintoff picked Andrew Strauss's first innings hundred as one of the crucial factors of the win, saying that after Mohali, he realised his team just needed to get the runs batting first; the bowlers were doing a good job. And he gave away his team's little secret, "playing Ring of Fire on an i-pod during the lunch break put the spring in our stride."

Dravid — who was barracked by the crass crowd during the post-match presentation ceremony, answering questions at one point with chants of `Sourav, Sourav' in the background — said the batting of the top-order and the catching had let his side down.

"We didn't play as well as we could have. This was not a 100-all-out wicket in the second innings. I was very positive as we went in to lunch without losing too many. It's never easy to chase 300 in India when it begins to turn and reverse swing. Those wickets of mine and Sachin's in two overs were the killer."

What was the thinking behind playing five bowlers? "It was a decision to look at winning series abroad. England has shown what it can do with five bowlers, and if we are going to do that we need some good lower order scores, which we got. We'll have to look at our top order."

The positives

What did he see as the positives from the series? "I think the young bowlers Munaf and Sreesanth showed they had good pace, they bowl in good areas, and they have the right attitude. Anil bowled magnificently, and Wasim looked composed as an opener in all three Tests."

On the toss, Dravid said, "Yes, in hindsight I would have batted. I will change my decision, given hindsight. We picked five bowlers, and we thought we could best utilise the bounce and the seam movement in the first session.

"It didn't do as much as we expected, but having said that if we had lost the toss and bowled, we still would have had to do well. Our top-order didn't perform, and our catching is something we need to work on. It's been tough with newcomers and them not being used to specialist catching positions, but we will have to work it out because the five bowlers can't field in the slips."

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