NEWS

Ganguly to stick to winning combo

By Ashish Magotra
March 22, 2003 19:00 IST

India skipper Sourav Ganguly appeared confident of his side winning in the final of the 2003 World Cup against Australia on Sunday.

Addressing a press conference on Saturday, he said: "Rahul [Dravid] is fit, just has a sore thumb and will definitely play.

"It is a big achievement for a sporting nation to reach the final of the World Cup but at the end of the day it is important to be on the winning side."

He indicated he would go in with the same team which played in the semi-finals.

"The pitch was a little damp today and I certainly won't be playing two spinners. The three seamers have done very well and it will be hard to drop any of them. But we will take the final decision only after taking a look at the pitch tomorrow morning," he said.

Asked whether there would be any change in the batting order in view of the threat Australia's ace pace man Brett Lee poses, Ganguly said: "We need to play well in all the disciplines, batting, bowling and fielding. We have to stick to the basics and focus on the job.

"The 1983 win at the World Cup inspired a lot of cricketers since then but it happened a long time back, 20 years. We hope to repeat their feat. The victories achieved by the team in 1983 and 1985 [World Championship of Cricket] mean a lot to us.

"After the Kenya game in the huddle I said 'Well done'. We also realized that we are one game away from being the World champions. We will give our everything in the final."

Reiterating he is not surprised by the team's successful run, Ganguly said, "New Zealand was one poor tour, we had six better tours before that. So I am not surprised by our performance in this World Cup.

"We have played good cricket and when we walk on to the field for India we need to just focus and do our job well.

"Before the game I think it is better to relax, do what we have been doing, stick to the things that have got us to this stage, whether its been the batting, fielding or the volleyball. So we are going to keep doing that."

Admitting the Aussies are playing very well, he said his boys will have to raise their game to come out tops.

"Give credit to the Aussies, they have played very well against all the teams. We need to see what they have done and raise the standards."

Ashish Magotra
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