The Hindu : Sport : We won’t sit back and relax: Ponting

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Saturday, Oct 06, 2007
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Sport

We won’t sit back and relax: Ponting

V.V. Subrahmanyam

— Photo: P.V. Sivakumar

SCINTILLATING STUFF: Yuvraj Singh almost pulled the chestnuts out of the fire for India with his blazing century.

Hyderabad: “The key to our success is the early breakthroughs we have been getting in this one-day series,” said Australian captain Ricky Ponting after the match on Friday.

“We believe that it is always better to set a target on these pitches as the batting conditions will be very difficult in the latter half of the day. And I am really pleased with the performance of Mitchell Johnson and Brett Lee for giving us the initiative,” he said.

“May be, after our semifinal loss in the Twenty20 in South Africa we had more time to focus on this series than the Indians. It is all about right preparations and getting the act together,” Ponting said.

No worry

“Even during the Sachin-Yuvraj partnership, there was no real worry for it is always very difficult for any team to come back strongly after losing three early wickets,” he said.

“But Yuvraj played a wonderful innings in difficult conditions to keep India in the race,” he complimented.

“Definitely, we won’t sit back and relax after being 2-0 up. We will work on the little areas which still are of concern,” Ponting said.

Andrew Symmonds, who also addressed the media, emphasised the fact that both teams decided to play the game as per the rules and that was the reason this match was more sober in terms of on-field behaviour.

Batting failure

Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said batting failure was the main reason if not the only one. “I thought we really bowled well in the death overs conceding only 30-plus runs. We failed because we could not get the start from the batsmen we were banking on,” he said.

“I don’t think there was anything in the pitch for the bowlers despite overcast conditions. I felt it was 300-plus wicket,” Dhoni said.

Dhoni said he had a chat with the umpire after some harsh words by the Australian cricketers when India was batting. “It was agreed (with the match referee’s knowledge) that no harsh words should be used against anyone on the field. But since that was repeated today, I had to inform the umpire. And there ended the matter,” he said.

“Yes, I got out at the wrong time. A partnership with Yuvraj for another six to seven overs could have made a big difference,” Dhoni said.

On Yuvraj’s century, he said the southpaw was terribly disappointed after losing the match. ‘He values only winning and nothing else,” he added.

Dhoni felt that Brad Hogg was having a good run primarily because the strike bowlers were getting the breakthroughs.

“He is having the liberty to do just what he would want to, because India has been losing wickets before his spell,” he said.

Not dropped

Dhoni said Sourav Ganguly was not dropped for this match but was rested as the team management did not want to aggravate his hamstring injury by playing him.

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