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