The Hindu : Sport : Hopefully our luck will hold at Eden

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 16, 2005

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Hopefully our luck will hold at Eden

By Sourav Ganguly

Heroes one day, villains the very next moment. This is a typical over-the-top reaction you get in the sub-continent if you happen to be a cricketer. Till the fourth day of the Mohali Test, just about everybody in India and Pakistan had written off Inzamam-ul Haq's boys, calling them the weakest ever team to have come to India. India were expected to hand them a good beating and send them packing.

The script has changed dramatically after the heroic fight back by Kamran Akmal and Abdul Razzaq on the fifth day. The same people who had written them off are now showering praises on them. Like us, I am sure Inzy and his boys, too, are used to it.

It was indeed disappointing not to win the first Test after being right on top for the first four days. We just could not get the vital breakthrough on the final day and missed out on a precious win. However, this should not take anything away from Akmal and Razzaq's effort. Such wonderful rearguard action is not seen too often in Test cricket and all credit to them for the manner in which they applied themselves to the task of saving the game for Pakistan.

Long after they have retired from the game, they can look back and feel proud of their exploits on a sunny afternoon in Mohali.

Happy

I am quite happy with my team's performance. What Pakistan did to us on the final day, we have done that in recent times to England, Australia and South Africa. Pakistan had one good day while we had one off-day and that does not make either team any better or worse. In my book this Pakistan team is as competitive as any I have played against and the more they play, the better they will get.

The Eden Gardens match could well decide the fate of the series. It is therefore important for us to get the combination right. Leaving out Harbhajan in the first Test was a tough decision. One has to think time and again before leaving out a spinner of his calibre.

There is a bit of grass on the Eden wicket and also a threat of rain. Whenever Kolkata gets very hot, it rains. So, a decision on the final XI is best left till the morning of the game.

Eden Gardens has been a happy hunting ground for Team India. We have beaten top teams like Australia and South Africa here and hopefully we will produce a similar result against Pakistan.

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