Ganguly sets sights
on clean sweep
One win, and skipper Sourav Ganguly is already thinking in terms of sweeping the series the way Mohammad Azharuddin's team did in 1993, when England visited India the last
time.
There was no hint of doubt in the mind of the captain
whose team ended a disastrous tour of South Africa just a few
days ago. In fact, the 10-wicket win in the first Test on Thursday gave Ganguly the hope that a 3-0 triumph against England would
conveniently erase the memories of the South Africa tour from
the minds of both the players and public.
"Its always good to start the series with a win. Now we
will go and try to win the next two in Ahmedabad and
Bangalore," Ganguly said.
However, he was quick to add that a lot would depend on
the wickets in those two centres and whether Harbhajan Singh
and Anil Kumble would be able to repeat their performances.
Harbhajan took seven wickets in the match in Mohali while Kumble
claimed eight to grab the man-of-the-match award.
"It was Harbhajan's spell after tea on the first day
that turned the match in our favour," Ganguly said. "He bowled
brilliantly and so did Kumble."
Coach John Wright also felt the first day's performance
was crucial. "We did the right things... We were able to get
England out within the day and then batted perfectly," he
said.
Ganguly showered lavish praise on the three debutants in
the team, saying all of them played excellently. "(Tinu)
Yohannan bowled really well in both innings. Siddiqui
contributed both with the bat and the ball. Bangar could bowl
only five overs due to injury but he did pretty well with the
bat in the first innings."
Ganguly also clarified that the restriction on Indian
players from talking to the press was only confined to the
period when the Test match was on.
"They would not speak only during the Test matches. Let them concentrate on cricket for
five days and then they are free to speak to the media."
Wright was very happy with the team's performance but
said England are very capable of bouncing back into the
series.
"They have done that against Pakistan and Sri Lanka."
England captain Nasser Hussain also expressed the hope
that his side would learn from its mistakes and come up with a
better performance in the next two matches.
"Ours is a very
young side but young people learn very quickly," he said.
"In fact, we missed many chances in this game. We were in
good positions in both our innings but let the advantage go
away. Also we cannot afford to give second chances to players
like (Sachin) Tendulkar, (Rahul) Dravid and Ganguly."
He was all praise for Harbhajan and Kumble for being able
to extract a lot of bounce and turn from the wicket. "Our
batsmen need to learn to face quality spinners from both the
ends.
"Our bowling was inexperienced but our batsmen also lack
experience in these conditions," he said.
Mail Cricket Editor