da brdice： Having been grounded by West Indies in the final after a superlativeperformance in the league matches, Indian captain Saurav Ganguly hasadvocated the case of having a ‘best-ofthree’ final in one-daytournaments
08-Jul-2001Having been grounded by West Indies in the final after a superlativeperformance in the league matches, Indian captain Saurav Ganguly hasadvocated the case of having a ‘best-ofthree’ final in one-daytournaments.”It is a bit harsh because you play four league games and win all andthen lose the one-off final,” Ganguly said. India won all their fourleague matches convincingly in the triangular one-day series inZimbabwe and lost the final by 16 runs yesterday.”I have seen this happen to a number of sides. It happened to us inthe ICC KnockOut mini World Cup in Nairobi where we beat two top teamsand then lost to New Zealand who were rated to be an inferior side. Ithappened to Pakistan in Sharjah where they won four games and thenlost to Sri Lanka in the final,” Ganguly said.While chasing an imposing 291 for victory, India had lost their firstfive wickets for just 80 runs yesterday, and Ganguly said it was a”shame”. “We lost the game at 80 for five. It was a big total butwith just three seamers in their side, and (Reon) King not at his verybest, we backed ourselves. We just needed to bat properly and playnormal cricket.”But Ganguly did not believe any of the players threw his wicket away.”A lot of people might say we have thrown wickets at the top order. Idon’t agree with it. The shot (V V S) Laxman played, it was pitchedhalfway down the wicket and you play such strokes in one-day cricketwhere you can’t let balls go.”He also justified his decision to put West Indies in to bat afterwinning the toss. “I did think about it (batting first) but then youhad won four games bowling first and it was a similar pitch. When atthe time of the toss (Carl) Hooper showed me the team he had, anycaptain would have decided to chase because he had just threebowlers,” he said.But Ganguly’s calculations went awry after the senior batsmen were outwithin the first 15 overs itself. The captain conceded the team neededa better performance from the top order batsmen.”They (seniors) have been a bit patchy. They were not as consistent asthey normally are, it is off and on kind of display. Me, Sachin(Tendulkar), Rahul (Dravid) and Laxman should have probably batted abit better. “They know it, you can make it out of their faces thatthey have made a mess of it.”We all try to win, especially in the finals. If we got to be a goodside, then there is no place for losers. If you want people to say youare a good side, then you got to win matches, you got to have playersscoring runs in important games. It is a mental kind of thing. It hasto be in the mind rather than ability. If we didn’t have the ability,we would not have reached the final.”But Ganguly was not sure whether the team needed a psychologist todeal with its mental fragility in crunch situations. “As for needing apsychologist, I would say yes and no. I personally feel it is morewith an individual.”More than the batsmen it was the bowlers who came under attack bycoach John Wright for conceding too many runs. Wright also stronglydefended Tendulkar and the shot which got him out.”Sachin never throws his wicket, he has played magnificently. Heselected a ball which was a bit high and quicker also and it happens.We can’t continually rely on Sachin Tendulkar to win us games (everytime). It has to be a collective effort. The greatest thing aboutTendulkar is that he is his hardest critic,” he said.”It does become a difficult game when your three medium pacers go forover six per over. We were just not efficient and accurate enough withthe ball.”Chasing that many runs was always going to be demanding. We just losttoo many early wickets, it would have been a proper chase if we were100 for two or something like that. “We have to take this as alearning opportunity, we just have to become tougher and more clinicalin how we play in such situations.”The critical stage today was the first 15 overs. Hooper and(Shivnarine) Chanderpaul did very well, they rotated the strike well,the left-handed, right-handed kind of thing.”I don’t think our fielding was bad. There sometimes is pressure onthe field because the ball is going to all parts of the ground, it isjust a fact of life,” Wright said.Hooper was pleasantly surprised by the effort of his batsmen. “We werecertainly looking for a 250 plus total but 290 was a really good scoreand it put India under pressure.”In the two games we played, we never really got to the Indian middle(order). The key obviously in this game were Sachin and Ganguly. Wegot rid of them quickly and we realised we had a chance.”Hooper revealed he had called a meeting of his batsmen a day beforethe final. “We had a meeting and we told the boys to stay positive. Inthe last four five games we were really not that positive and wewanted it so this time.”Hooper had great praise for his fast bowler and man of the match,Corey Collymore who picked up four wickets for 49 runs. “Collymore wasnursing an injury before the final. We decided to rest him in the last(league) game and it paid off,” he said.”If a side makes 290, then the other side is always under pressure. Itwas fortunate for us that Sachin got out. He was the key. Then Gangulyhad to pick it up because he couldn’t let the scoring requirement goup to seven (early in the innings). I suppose they fell under thepressure.” Hooper said.Despite the heroics of Reetinder Singh Sodhi and Samir Dighe, Hooperhad no doubt his side would win the final. “I always thought it(score) was too big. I was sure we would win this game by at least a15-20 run margin.”