We can be very dangerous from here on: Dravid
Rex Clementine - 28 July 2001
Indian stand-in captain Rahul Dravid issued a warning to the other two
sides participating in the Coca-Cola Cup after India beat Sri Lanka
convincingly by seven wickets in the sixth match of the tournament at
the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Saturday.
"We can be very dangerous from here on. If we have some luck from
here on, we can be a real threat to the other two sides," said the
right handed batsmen who came in as captain for this game after Sourav
Ganguly was given a one match suspension.
"It was just for this one game," said Dravid, reflecting on his role
as captain in today's match. "At this moment I am happy to play under
Sourav. He's done a wonderful job as captain during the last year. I
was in for today because of an unfortunate incident."
Sri Lanka started off very well with the dangerous opening duo of
Romesh Kaluwitharana and Sanath Jayasuriya putting on an opening
partnership of 103 runs off 24.2 overs, but thereafter things changed
quickly and Sri Lanka were shot out for 183.
"With Sanath and Kalu in the middle, the pressure was really on us.
But the run rate was under control and when we got that wicket of
Jayasuriya I knew we had a real chance," said Dravid.
Chasing a modest target, the Indian batsmen initially struggled a bit,
but in the end they reached it comfortably. "We just didn't want lose
our wickets to Murali chasing such a small target. That's why we just
played him off" said Dravid on his side's policy of playing Muttiah
Muralitharan whose 10 overs just cost 28 runs today.
Man of the match, VVS Laxman made an unbeaten 87 and made sure India
reached the score without much difficulty. "We didn't want to lose
early wickets with the experiences of the past few games. I just
wanted to play as straight as possible and stay there. Luckily the
bowlers had done a great job for us."
Laxman has to undergo a knee surgery, which will take at least four
weeks to heal. He was to return to India for his surgery and was
unlikely to play this game, but the suspension of Ganguly ruled out
any chances of his going back to India to attend to his injury;
"You can't be worrying about injuries or anything once you are in the
final eleven. After Sourav was out, I had to play. Our physiotherapist
has done a tremendous job," reflected the right-hander who might go
back to India if the injury does not heal.
Chasing the small target, the Indian batsmen had problems against the
Sri Lankan bowlers. Laxman himself struggled against Murali but in the
end he finished off in style, "Initially it was very difficult to
play Murali," said Laxman. "This is the first time I have played
him, so it was a big challenge for me to face him. He's a great
spinner no doubt about it, but I won't disclose my tactics of playing
him."
Sri Lankan captain Sanath Jaysuriya accepted that his side had put up
a poor performance.
"It was a disappointing performance by our batsmen once again. We
should have pushed for more singles and worked out our ways of scoring
off the Indian bowlers. But to be honest the Indians bowled well."
However the captain said the team has played relatively well
throughout the tournament, "There's nothing to panic. If you take the
last game we came back well. This was just one of those days where
nothing went our way."
© CricInfo