India's final misery unexplained

Indian captain Sourav Ganguly was unable to explain why his team have lost their last nine one-day international finals after Friday's defeat by South Africa.

India were dismissed for 183 and South Africa cantered to victory in the triangular series final by six wickets, reaching their target with 7.5 overs to spare.

The visitors' barren run began in April 1998, and Ganguly does not know why his side is finding it so hard to break the unhappy streak.

"We have to find the solution but at the present moment I don't know what it is," Ganguly told reporters. "We've lost six finals in the space of a year, and we've got to do something about it.

"We've got to play better cricket, because we haven't played well at all in any of the finals."

Ganguly said India lost their way on Friday because of their mediocre total, which they followed by dropping Gary Kirsten on 23 and Jacques Kallis on nine. Kirsten went on to score 87 and Kallis making 39.

"It (the Indian total) wasn't enough," Ganguly said. "We didn't take our catches, and we were outplayed by a better side.

"You've got to handle the pressure - we've done it before. It's just not happening in the finals".

"We knew we had to get wickets up front and we did that, so it put some pressure on their middle order," said South African captain Shaun Pollock, whose team reduced India to 31 for two in the 12th over after winning the toss and asking the visitors to bat.

"It was a bit of a gamble, but I thought the guys backed it up with some good bowling and fielding," Pollock said.

Kirsten was named man-of-the-series for his return of 373 runs at an average of 93.93, including two centuries.

India's tour of South Africa : Complete coverage

Mail Cricket Editor