Ganguly, Wright turn the heat on bowlers
Fakir Hassen, Indo-Asian News Service
Indian cricket captain Saurav Ganguly and coach John Wright are putting pressure on their bowlers ahead of the second one-day international against South Africa Wednesday in the
triangular series in Johannesburg.
Kenya is the third country in the series.
Ganguly publicly blamed Indian bowlers for their defeat by six
wickets in the first match Friday, despite India having set a good target
of 279 that included centuries by Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar.
Amid reports that the Indian team was under pressure with
messages from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) demanding results,
Wright said the team had been working hard at getting right "our line and
length."
"We simply have to get it right," Wright told the daily
SportsDay here.
He said suggestions that the errant line and length by bowlers
Javagal Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad, Anil Kumble and Ajit Agarkar were
due to the fact that they were still getting used to the different nature of
the tracks in South Africa were not correct.
"Our problem was simply that the bowlers did not land the ball
in the right place when we were defending. It's no good saying we didn't
have all our bowlers there. I have a simple view. Zaheer Khan and Ashish
Nehra are not here so we must get on without them.
"We went into Friday night's game with four experienced specialist bowlers
and they should have bowled a lot better," Wright said.
"These players have bowled on tracks all over the world. They
have bowled here before and on this tour. We have already been in South
Africa for three weeks, that's enough time to get used to the pace and bounce of
the pitches.
"The fact is we should really have been able to defend a score of 279. It
was a very good target and our batsmen did everything expected of them. If
the bowlers had bowled in the right place, South Africa should not have got
the runs."
Wright said preparations for the second clash Wednesday were concentrated on
correcting this.
Ganguly, who earlier also blamed the bowlers for their failure in the first
game, was a little more optimistic about the performance of the bowlers for
the rest of the tour.
"We didn't bowl well in the first 15 overs of the last game, but that does
not mean we are not going to bowl well in the rest of the series," Ganguly
told the daily Citizen here. "They (India) are quality bowlers and I know
they will come back," he added.
Ganguly said if the Indian team wanted to be a serious force in
world cricket again, it would have to find ways of overcoming the
missed chances that have been a problem for the past six or seven months.
Giving examples of such missed chances in the first game against South
Africa, Ganguly said he himself was guilty of dropping Herschelle Gibbs
early in his innings, and the bowlers bowled too short.
"We should have put plenty more runs up on the board, after the
position we were in. I dropped a catch at mid-off, which was also crucial.
We have to hold onto all our opportunities if we want to beat good sides
like Australia and South Africa outside home.
"It's not that we are playing poor cricket, we are playing good cricket.
It's just that we are not holding onto our opportunities to win. We are here
to win against whomever we play.
"You just don't win by walking around the field. We must do the
basics right and like I say, we must hold all our opportunities, in order to
beat good sides."
Ganguly said there was "no reason to panic," as there were
still many games ahead in the two-month tour, which included the triangular and
a Test series against South Africa.
India's tour of South Africa : Complete coverage
--Indo-Asian News Service
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