The Hindu : Sport : Dravid all praise for his bowlers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 17, 2006

Sport

Sport

Dravid all praise for his bowlers

Special Correspondent

Multan: Rahul Dravid gave his bowlers the credit for bowling India to victory in the fourth match of the Hutch ODI series. "The bowlers did a great job. Some of the wickets were not easy to bowl on."

More than winning the series, India has played good cricket in the ODIs, he said. "We have made progress as a team, kept our spirits up. Our confidence is high."

The Indian skipper had encouraging words for Man of the Match paceman Rudra Pratap Singh (in picture). "This is his first year in international cricket. And he has come on very well. The youngsters are learning fast."

Still on India's pace bowling, he said, "We have a nice combination. It's a good sign for the future." He also had words of praise for Suresh Raina's batting.

Dravid said the Indian victory in the ODI series was not any kind of warning sign to England. "They are a good side. We will have to play well."

Dravid said India had regrouped well after the setback in the Test series. "We have worked very hard after the Test series. We have done plenty of work behind the scenes. We have set very good fields to some batsmen. The bowlers have executed the plans well."

Inzamam disappointed

Inzamam-ul-Haq was disappointed by the display of his batsmen. "We did not have enough runs to defend. There was pressure on us but these players are used to the pressure. I don't want to give any excuse."

The Pakistan skipper accepted that some of his key players were missing from his side. "This is true. But we still had the replacements. We didn't perform well enough with the bat today to give ourselves a chance. We did not show the required application. These days there is criticism after every failure," he said.

On left-arm paceman R.P. Singh, he said, "I saw his potential in the Faisalabad Test too. He is improving with every game. He is a very good prospect."

R.P. Singh said he just stuck to line and length as advised by his coach Greg Chappell and captain Dravid. "I maintained the off-stump line and there was reward for me.''

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