November 04 Monday 2002
Ganguly pays tribute to Indian batsmen

KOLKATA: India captain Saurav Ganguly praised his side's fighting qualities on Sunday after they bounced back from a first-innings deficit to draw the third and final test against West Indies. 

India had already clinched the three-test series 2-0 but West Indies entertained hopes of a victory after reducing the home side to 87 for four in their second innings on the fourth day. "Somebody has stood up and delivered in a crunch situation," said Ganguly, after Vangipurappu Laxman's unbeaten 154 and Sachin Tendulkar's classy 176 guided India out of trouble on the fifth and final day at Eden Gardens." It has been the feature of our cricket over the past 10 months and, hopefully, we can continue that for the next six months (until the World Cup). We were a bit down in this Test, but we fought back very well to save the game."

"Anything could have happened if we had lost early wickets." Ganguly had gone into the Test hoping to lead his side to a clean sweep to equal Mohammad Azharuddin's Indian record of 14 Test wins as captain. 

But he said: "We are not disappointed we did not win 3-0. West Indies played very well, they batted well." 

"For once, we put India under pressure," Hooper said, adding that his team's continuing struggle overseas remained a concern. "We continue not to play well overseas and that is disturbing," he said. "This is an area we have to address."

West Indies, world cricket's dominant force in the 1980's, have lost nine of their last 10 overseas Test series.

Hooper said Tendulkar's batting prevented a West Indies win. "Sachin is a world class player. If we had got him early, it would have been a different game."