da mrbet： Gautam Gambhir has said that being consistent is the most important goal for him in international cricket
Andrew McGlashan in Belfast23-Jun-2007
Gautam Gambhir shrugged off the early loss of Sachin Tendulkar and played a composed innings to lead India to a nine-wicket win © Getty Images
Opening the batting in temperatures that barely made it to double figuresand with rain never far away it isn’t an easy task even for the mostexperienced players. Gautam Gambhir had been expected to open thebatting for India at Stormont so, when he came in at No.3 followingSachin Tendulkar’s dismissal for 4, he could have been forgiven for afew nerves. But he responded with a calm and composed unbeaten 80, which ledhis team to a nine-wicket win as they opened their two-and-half-monthtour of the UK in positive style.”It will be a long tour so it’s important to start off well. For anycricketer, not just me, it’s nice to start well and I’m pleased I gotthe runs,” said Gambhir after he’d collected the Man-of-the-Matchaward. “It’s not like in India where you can just go out there andplay through the line of the ball. Sometimes you have to be a bit morepatient and work the ball into the gaps in these conditions.”After missing out on the World Cup, Gambhir returned to Indian colourswith 21 and 101 against Bangladesh before backing those scores up withtoday’s unbeaten 80. “At this level it’s all about being consistentand that’s what I was lacking in the past and it’s very important forme.”And previous experience of English conditions played a valuable partin his innings. “I toured England with India A so I know somethingabout batting on these types of tracks. You want to start off a seasonon a high note and I’m happy about the way it’s begun.”Gambhir’s match-winning stand of 162 with Sourav Ganguly followed atidy display in the field, with Piyush Chawla leading the way withthree wickets. Some smart catches were also taken and Robin Singh, the fielding coach, said this was an important area they wereworking on.”We did a lot of work in Bangalore on the fitness,” he said. “Thefitter the guys the better they will field. These conditions werepretty cold but we fielded well in patches today, some didn’t do sowell, but overall some very good catches were taken.”We have ensured we have worked on the fielding because it’s a crucialarea in one-day cricket. I think you’ll see an improvement especiallywith the younger guys in the side. As long as the senior guys keepthemselves fit they know what to do, but the emphasis is on theyounger guys.”Trent Johnston had less to be pleased with as his young side weregiven a tough lesson. His team did well to recover and post 193,thanks to a half-century from Niall O’Brien and some effective hittingfrom the captain himself before some wayward bowling let them down.”When we asked questions we were in with a show but we just didn’t dothat often enough, we bowled too many four balls,” he said. “Webowled two sides of the wicket, we were bowling short, we were bowlingfull and you wouldn’t be able to get away with that in club cricket,let alone bowling to a guy that’s got 10,000 ODI runs.After Roger Whelan struck in his first over thoughts did turn back toa few of those memorable days in the World Cup. “Getting Tendulkar outfirst over, I thought something might happen here,” said Johnston. “Ireally did believe we had enough runs to do that but we just didn’task enough questions and that was the disappointing thing.”They had a young spinner but a good spinner and that’s been our majorproblem, spin bowling. It’s something we’ve got to work on but it’sonly playing games like this that’s going to bring us along.” Theirnext chance comes immediately as they take on South Africa on Sunday.