da bet7k： Captain Sourav Ganguly blamed India’s batsmen for their innings defeatin Colombo on Sunday
Rex Clementine02-Sep-2001Captain Sourav Ganguly blamed India’s batsmen for their innings defeatin Colombo on Sunday.”The first day collapse on a perfect batting cost us the game and the series,” he said bluntly.”Murali bowled pretty well in this game, but the Sri Lankan team also played better overall,” he said.”It’s not anyone in particular, its all the top six batsmen,” he said. “They had six hundreds in this series, whereas we didn’t have a single. That shows that they have batted us out of the series”Ganguly refused to make excuses because of injuries. “There is pointin using the injuries as an excuse,” he said. “There is a lot ofcricket being played in India and it was the duty of those 14 who werepicked to deliver and that didn’t happen.”Ganguly admitted that the form of Harbhajan Singh had been adisappointment.”He bowled well in the one-day games, but had a lowTest series,” he said. “He is a quality bowler and he is still young.He has a long way to go before he becomes a great Test bowler and needsto keep his head on his shoulders and just keep on playing.”Indian coach John Wright said: “It is hugely disappointing to lose onthis strip, where we would have at least expected to draw. We did notplay good cricket.”Agreeing with Ganguly about the poor batting, he also added: “Therewere some soft dismissals in the first innings, but to be fair it is abig challenge for young players to play Muralitharan. He is withoutpeer at the moment and is a tremendous bowler. Even the experiencedplayers struggle.”On the series in general, he said: “Sri Lanka don’t have bettercricketers than us, but their bowling was probably more balanced andthey were able to put more pressure on us than we were able to put onthem. They also sustained their intensity for longer periods of time.””The boys have shown character on this tour, when they came back inthe one-day series and the second Test, but we have got to understandand accept that we have to be rock-solid in certain fundamentaldepartments, such fitness, running between wickets and fielding,” heargued.”We have got re-evaluate and work hard in those areas,” he said “Yousimply cannot have three run outs when you are trying to save a Testmatch. We have also got to get fitter. That is a really big issue forus.””On the plus side we have learnt a bit about some of the players andsome players are developing,” he said. “We have also identified theareas where we can improve.”