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Captain thrilled with his effort

By Our Special Correspondent

BRISBANE Dec. 7. "I am very happy to have done well in Australia. It is a dream for any cricketer, especially those coming from the sub-continent to score hundreds in Australia and South Africa where the pitches have a lot of bounce. I am very happy for myself," said a beaming Sourav Ganguly at the `Gabba' after his century saw India take the first innings lead against Australia.

"All Test centuries are important. Obviously, this one will be a special one because it came against the best team in the world. When I walked out to bat, the score was 62 for three and from that point of view, and a personal point of view, scoring a Test hundred against Australia was very good,'' stressed Ganguly.

The India skipper thanked former Australia captain Greg Chappell for helping him prepare for the series. "I have interacted with him a lot. My thanks to Greg. We do talk often wherever I am in the world. He is a very good teacher and motivator. He did a few things with my technique and so far it has worked well for me".

On him being made a target by the Australian media and some former players, Ganguly responded "they have job to do, as we have a job to do. Life will go on. The game will go on. I play the game my way. I believe in my ability that I can score runs. That is what I best like to do. It is a professional sport and you have to take failures in your stride".

Ganguly praised his partners too. "The partnerships were important for the team, especially with two of our best players falling early in the innings. It is good that I scored a hundred. But Laxman played superbly. Akash (Chopra) and then Parthiv (Patel) did pretty well. If we continue like this for the rest of the tour, it will be good for us. We need to carry on. We literally start the next game from scratch''.

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