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Bristol, Aug 25: Heaping praise on Piyush
Chawla for his crucial three-wicket burst in India's nine-run
win against England in the second one-day international, captain
Rahul Dravid said the young leg-spinner had improved a lot since
his Test debut last year. After India posted a mammoth 329 for
seven at Nevil Road on Friday, England's valiant effort to
overhaul the target was thwarted by Chawla, who returned figures
of three for 60 off his 10 overs. Dravid knew that it was a
great performance by the teenager considering the facts that the
boundary was shorter and the outfield was faster.
"He's a young kid, he's only 18-years-old. He
has a long way to go. But there are great signs," Dravid told
after the series leveling victory here yesterday. "He's played
all his (one-day) cricket outside India in conditions that don't
really suit his sort of spin bowling. He's got a great attitude,
terrific for an 18-year-old. He always wants to bowl. He's
looking to bowl to good batsmen and looking to set aggressive
fields. He's not scared, even if he gets hit." Dravid
acknowledged that Chawla had shown tremendous maturity and
improvement as a bowler since beginning his international career
last year.
"He played a Test match against England in
Mohali (in 2006) and if you look at the way he's bowling now and
the way he was bowling then, there has been an improvement." The
Indian skipper hailed the spinners for showing guts on the small
ground and implementing the team's plans properly. "We took a
bit of a gamble there, we knew it was a small boundary but I
guess one of the areas we suffered from at the Rose Bowl (where
England won by 104 runs) was that we just didn't take wickets in
the middle overs. "Our spinners bowled really well considering
the boundaries. They got the crucial wickets and we needed all
of them to even defend a score like 329 on this ground." Dravid
admired old warhorses Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly for
putting on 113 runs for the opening stand and laying the
foundation for a big total.
"Sachin and Sourav got us off to a great
start and set the tempo." About his own unbeaten innings of 92,
Dravid said, "It came off for me today, I had a bit of luck. I
was timing the ball well." England captain Paul Collingwood said
they would rethink about their strategy of playing seamer Chris
Tremlett instead of spinner Monty Panesar. "We are going to have
a look at it. When you're bowling against an Indian batting
line-up like that they can make any bowler look average. It was
a small ground and the seamers had done so well at the Rose
Bowl, we decided to go in with that kind of balance." The
England captain, however, expressed satisfaction over his
batsmen's ability to get near to the big target set by the
Indians.
"We needed someone to go on and get a 100 or
a 120. But I was pleased with the way the boys went about their
chase. It proves we can knock big totals off and that was just
out of our reach today." Collingwood said Andrew Flintoff's
finger injury was all right and the bowler was relishing his
success with the ball. "He is pretty much okay. He is pretty
happy with his five-for and raring to go for the next match. He
knows what he is doing with the ball, he nails his yorkers, he
is aggressive and hopefully the other seamers learn from what he
does," Collingwood said. (Agencies)
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