September 27 Friday 2002
We were destined to win: Ganguly

COLOMBO: Captain Sourav Ganguly claimed India were 'destined' to win after his side's dramatic 10-run victory over South Africa in the semifinal of the ICC Champions Trophy on Wednesday night.

India looked "dead and buried" after a record 178-run second-wicket stand between Herschelle Gibbs and Jacques Kallis left South Africa cruising to victory on 192 for 1. But when Gibbs was forced from the field with cramps in both hands, South Africa lost quick wickets and then fell behind the run-rate as India's spinners excelled.

An emotional Ganguly said afterwards: "I don't know how we won this game. I don't have the words to describe it, but it was fantastic. We never gave up and were destined to win. We thought it was a big total because the ball wasn't coming on to the bat, but Gibbs and Jacques Kallis played well.

"But we got two wickets in one over from Harbhajan Singh which probably turned the game for us."

He admitted though that Gibbs' hand cramps were a godsend: "We got an opportunity with Gibbs going off the field and we grabbed it."

He reserved special praise for left-armer Zaheer Khan, who conceded just 27 runs from nine overs, and Virender Sehwag, the eventual man of the match, who followed a brisk 59 with three wickets at the death. "I thought we did pretty well with the ball," said Ganguly. "Zaheer (Khan) has been outstanding for the last six months and to go for 27 runs in nine overs on this track was amazing.

"And Sehwag can't do anything wrong. Perhaps I should have bowled him earlier. But I have to give credit to everybody, we fielded brilliantly. The two catches from Yuvraj Singh were some of the best I have seen."

South African captain Shaun Pollock was understandably distraught. "It's basically just not good enough at an international level. We had the game wrapped up but, unfortunately, we didn't do it and we are out of the tournament," said Pollock. "We only have ourselves to blame."

He was pleased with his bowlers who had fought back after a brisk Indian start. "I thought that 261 was very gettable and the way we went about it at the start was pretty awesome, we were well in control. But after Herschelle's cramps we lost our way.

"Unfortunately, he had cramp in both of his hands and he wasn't able to bat again. We tried to get him going again, but it was impossible. All credit to India though. I thought they fought back hard. They didn't give us any free balls to hit and kept the pressure on us.

"We'll have to go back to the drawing board and make sure that we don't make those mistakes again."

He played down similarities with South Africa's humiliating exit from the 1999 World Cup when they lost on the final ball in the semifinal to Australia: "In that game we needed one run from one ball, here we were behind run rate in final three overs."