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Ganguly optimistic over NatWest final
Indian captain Sourav Ganguly today said that his team needed just one good day on the field to get back its winning touch.
- Indo-Asian News Service
- Updated: February 25, 2007 09:08 AM IST
Read Time:3 min
London:
Indian captain Sourav Ganguly today said that his team needed just one good day on the field to get back its winning touch. "We need just one good day to pull things back. We have won with this squad in the past," Ganguly said after crashing to the second straight defeat in the Natwest Challenge one-day international against England. "Nothing is impossible," he said when asked whether his team can come back after just a day's rest and beat England in the third and last match at Lord's on Sunday. "We just need to hang in there but things did not go our way," he said after India lost by 70 runs chasing England's 307 for five at The Oval. Praising Harbhajan The Indian skipper was full of praise for his off-spinner Harbhajan Singh. "Harbhajan was outstanding. Overall the spinners did a good job." Asked whether he would field both Anil Kumble and Harbhajan in Lord's, he said "I will decide on that after looking at the surface." 3-0 sweep England captain Michael Vaughan on the other hand was looking forward to a 3-0 sweep on Sunday. "It is one of our best performances in one-day cricket and it is a very important victory against a good Indian side," Vaughan said. "It is a great effort by our lads." But Vaughan said he was expecting the star Indian batting to put up a stiff challenge. "With India's batting we thought 300 could be gettable," he said. Ganguly admitted that India were not upto the mark in both bowling and batting and said his team lost its way after pulling things back in the middle of the first session. "We have not played well in both aspects of the game. We started badly, then we managed to pull it back but again lost it," the skipper said as his bowlers were battered by man of the match Andrew Flintoff and Paul Collingwood after battling back to take four quick wickets to halt the Englishmen who were off to a flyer. The England captain was thankful to his openers Vikram Solanki and Marcus Trescothick who added 71 runs in quick time. "We got a great start but then lost a cluster of four wickets," he said. 'Phenomenal knock' Lauding Flintoff's match winning 99, Vaughan described it as a "phenomenal" knock. "It was good to see Collingwood also getting the runs." Flintoff, the choice of 65 per cent of voters for the man of the match award, said he was tackling Harbhajan carefully as the offie was getting the ball to turn and bounce. "Harbhajan was bowling well and we knew we could get the runs later with the ball coming on to the bat and the outfield fast," he said. With his batting in sublime form the all-rounder was now looking to pick up more wickets with his seamers. "I'm getting more thirsty for wickets," he said. (PTI)Topics mentioned in this article
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