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 Justifying his decision of not declaring the innings early on the last day of the final cricket Test against West Indies here today, skipper Sourav Ganguly said it would have been “risky” and he was not disappointed with the result. “We were looking at a lead of about 160 runs at lunch, which we did not get," Ganguly told reporters after the third match ended in a draw. “With the slowing down of the run rate after Sachin Tendulkar was out soon after lunch, declaring the innings would have been risky," he said.
By the time India had gained a “reasonable lead”, there were only 45 overs left, which, he said, “was not enough to get them out in a Test match". Admitting that his side did not have a proper game plan ready for the final day's play, Ganguly said the result did not come as a disappointment. “It is not disappointing. West Indies played well in the Test." Ganguly, however, said the team was confident of winning the seven-match one-day series which starts on Wednesday.
Commending the performance of Tendulkar and V V S Laxman, who together added 214 runs in a record fifth wicket partnership, the skipper said the duo came to the rescue of the team that was “struggling at 83 for three at one time." He admitted he was “a bit disappointed" with his own performance in the series, scoring only 49 runs in four innings with a poor average of 12.25.
“It is obviously very disappointing... there were three matches and I had the ideal opportunity to score big runs. There were some poor decisions, but it is all part of the game," he said. Ganguly appreciated the efforts of his side saying it had kept up with the good performance during the past 12 months despite playing “lots of cricket". “We have played lots of cricket during the past 12 months. It has been a test of our physical ability and mental toughness, but we stood up to it."
The positive outcome from the series was that every member of the team played well, he said. Ganguly was particularly appreciative of left handed seamer Zaheer Khan, who has been rested since the second Test due to injury, spinners Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble as also the young wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel and batsmen like Tendulkar, Virendra Sehwag and V V S
Laxman.
On the ODI series, he said the seven match series would be "hard for both the teams". While describing the West Indies team as “not a weak one", Ganguly exuded confidence of winning the one-day series. On the absence of Zaheer Khan and Tendulkar from the one dayers, he said “you can't help it. Let's go with what we have... I think we still have a good team." |
