The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Tying up loose ends, and how!

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Friday, Oct 12, 2007
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Tying up loose ends, and how!

Special Correspondent

— Photo: PTI

WAY TO GO, MATE! Sachin Tendulkar, who played his 400th ODI on Thursday, gets a pat from Australian captain Ricky Ponting.

Vadodara: Ricky Ponting said his team had assessed its defeat in Chandigarh and “tied up the loose ends.”

The Australian captain admitted that a reasonable total would have been hard to chase on the wicket here. “We created the pressure, did not allow them to score,” he said.

He had words of praise for Mitchell Johnson and Adam Gilchrist.

Ponting was also appreciative of Brett Lee’s spell with the new ball.

Satisfying

Johnson said a stint at the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai earlier this year had helped him get used to the Indian conditions. “It was very satisfying to get my first five-wicket haul in such hot weather,” he said.

The left-arm paceman said he was trying to swing the ball away from the left-hander and into the right-hander and the plan worked. “I bowled in the right areas,” he added.

Johnson, who said Dennis Lillee and Brett Lee were his heroes, rated this performance above his four for 11 burst against India in Kuala Lumpur last year. “That pitch had some juice. There was some swing in the morning here but this wicket offered little,” he said.

Demanding schedule

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said the schedule had been demanding on the players. India has played almost non-stop cricket from the tour of Ireland more than four months ago.

“This was not a 300-run wicket,” Dhoni said and added his team suffered because it could not build partnerships. “We kept losing wickets at regular intervals,’ he admitted. Dhoni also said, “This is our best line-up.”

The Indian skipper revealed it was his decision to open the bowling with Harbhajan Singh’s off-spin. “He likes to bowl with a harder ball and we wanted to try something different. He bowled well.”

Queried about the lack of runs from former India captain Rahul Dravid’s blade, he replied: “No comments.”

Dhoni said there was plenty of cricket left in the last two games. Meanwhile, the Indian selectors have not made any changes to the squad for the final two ODIs in Nagpur and Mumbai.

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