A despondent Indian team is slowly recovering from what skipper Saurav Ganguly called a demoralising defeat against Sri Lanka in a one-day triseries match on Sunday, and is still looking for the right batting combination to bring themselves back into the tournament. Talking to reporters in Colombo this evening, Ganguly defended the experiments with the batting line-up and said he was batting down the order to make for the lack of expertise in the middle order and keep the innings together in tight situations.
"It was really demoralising yesterday. We had gone in for an extra batsman, we did a good job with the ball and it is a disappointing feeling that we could not get six runs an over with five wickets in hand," he said. "We lost the chance of winning after being in a position to win. Our inexperience showed especially when (Virender) Sehwag got out," Ganguly said.
He was also frustrated that India could not score a boundary at a time when they needed 30 off 30 balls even when bowlers other than Muttiah Muralitharan were bowling. He said it was too early to write India off the tournament but knew that as the only team without a win at the end of one-third of the preliminary league matches, they needed to win at least three of the four left.
Bureau Report