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Wednesday, Dec 07, 2005

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Sport - Cricket

Different strokes

Sports Reporter

Chennai: While the Sri Lankan side looked at the one and a half days of play in the first Test as a "much needed advantage that would bring back confidence," India chose not to "read too much into it."

Asked about the reasons for the batting collapse, Indian coach Greg Chappell said, "Sri Lanka bowled quite well, we didn't bat as we could have in difficult conditions but we probably made it difficult for us."

He said the match was good practice for both teams, but little else. "I wouldn't read too much into it, if you do that you would be disillusioning yourself."

On Virender Sehwag getting starts but not consolidating them, Chappell said, "It's something we have discussed, but we aren't unduly concerned about it. I'm sure he will get the big one soon, maybe in Delhi, but he was our top-scorer."

Asked pointedly about Sourav Ganguly's failure with bat and ball, the Australian batting legend repeated his "not reading too much" line.

`More disciplined'

Sri Lankan captain Marvan Atapattu said the match was a much needed start. "It wasn't the easiest wicket to bat on. We were more disciplined than our opponents and we did really well to restrict a strong batting line-up to 167."

About his injury scare, Atapattu said he batted at number five to give himself time for an X-ray, adding he was "ok."

Sri Lankan coach Tom Moody said Chaminda Vaas's performance was a result of work the left-armer had been putting in for the last few weeks.

"I am very happy for him, it was disappointing during the one-day series and it's nice to see him getting the reward for his hard work."

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