The Hindu : The smiles are back

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 20, 2003

Sport

Sport - World Cup

The smiles are back

By Our Special Correspondent

The smiles were back on the faces of the Indian cricketers after their emphatic 83-run victory against Zimbabwe in the World Cup match in Harare on Wednesday. Sourav Ganguly is exulting as he claims the wicket of Zimbabwe's Dion Ebrahim. Mohd. Kaif and Yuvraj Singh too join their skipper in rejoicing. - Photo V.V. Krishnan

HARARE FEB. 19. Sourav Ganguly sported a big smile; Sachin Tendulkar hid his emotions, but he must surely have been pleased with his `man of the match' performance.

The Indian dressing room was a joyous scene with the victory against Zimbabwe coming as a big relief to this beleaguered team.

``I'm happy with the way the team played,'' Ganguly opened the conference, even though he was relegated to the number four position. He conceded, "the opening partnership played a significant part. I think we batted very well in the first 15 overs. It was much better than the last two games but we lost direction in the middle overs.''

In hindsight, Ganguly may have rued the team management decision to relieve him of the opener's position because it was a track which suited his style of strokeplay.

Before the game, Ganguly and Virender Sehwag had to make minor alterations to enable their bats match the specifications. "It was nothing,'' Ganguly dismissed the episode which required him and Sehwag to conform to the International Cricket Council standards as far as the specifications of the bat were concerned.

Reacting to a question regarding the football-like huddle at the end of every wicket, Ganguly said, "it is mainly to remind all of us that we need to fight till the end. Everyone has a right to speak. Srinath speaks the most.''

The India skipper pointed out the importance of the victory. "Winning the game has helped us a lot. We still have two important matches to go and must qualify with some points.''

Tendulkar, the `man of the match', had a few questions to answers. And once again he dealt with the appeal he had to make on Tuesday to the Indian public regarding the wild reactions to the team's loss to Australia.

"We had put up a bad performance against Australia. It's s game after all and such things to happen. People in India have always supported us and I just wanted to request them to continue their support.''

Zimbabwe skipper Heath Streak took the defeat in his stride. "We backed ourselves to bowl first but didn't bowl well enough in the first 15 overs.''

Streak, however, gave credit to the Indian bowlers. "They didn't give the width but nobody dominated the Indian bowlers either.''

Streak also defended Andy Flower's poor batting. "He was struggling. But one could see he worked hard. You have such days when you can't get your timing right.''

The India and Zimbabwe captains concluded with the hope that their teams would improve in the days to come.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport