da cassino： Indian captain Sourav Ganguly on Sunday wanted his team to carry onthe good work after winning the first Test against Zimbabwe inBulawayo
11-Jun-2001Indian captain Sourav Ganguly on Sunday wanted his team to carry onthe good work after winning the first Test against Zimbabwe inBulawayo.”The boys are happy to have won a Test in 15 years outside the subcontinent. We have to build up on this now. It is good to have such astart but we have to be more consistent in winning abroad. We have tobe more consistent in playing good cricket,” Ganguly said.Asked if the second innings chase for his team was made easy becauseHeath Streak and Henry Olonga were missing from the Zimbabwean line-upGanguly countered saying that had Nehra not been banned they wouldhave got them out earlier.”If Nehra had not been taken off, we would have got them much earlier.There are no ifs and buts in cricket. Obviously they were a littlehandicapped without their two main bowlers. But these things happen ina game,” said Ganguly.Coach John Wright felt that Harbhajan Singh is developing his battingskills. “I think is he is developing his batting,” Wright said whenasked whether Harbhajan has the makings of an allrounder.Wright said he was pleased with Nehra as he fielded well and battedlong enough for the last wicket, adding 38 important runs. “It isgiving depth to our side,” the coach said.Wright did not feel that Sadagopan Ramesh, who made 2 and 17 in thematch, didn’t contribute in the game. “He took two outstanding catcheswhich actually turned the tide of the game."I am very pleased with the boys. We have the potential of winning onevery ground. I have always felt that. We coped very well. The processstarted in Bangalore and we took some outstanding catches in thisgame,” Wright said.Ganguly was not too upset with his own form. “Every time I get lowscores I think about the good scores I have scored in the past. I amnot worried, as long as the team wins. There is no point in doing welland the team not winning. I would love to score runs though”. he said.”The performance was satisfying. We took some outstanding catches inthe match and it means we have gone fitter which I think is veryimportant. We have tried to work hard on our fitness. We have tried toimprove the standards of our fitness,” said Ganguly.On Nehra’s ban, Ganguly said the warnings came quickly before he couldchange the end. “He was warned from the other side but these twowarnings happened very quickly. We could have got him from the otherend straightaway. But he kept telling me he would try and get off thedanger zone. I told him to come around the wicket but he was not toocomfortable around the wicket.”But Ganguly was not happy with the way India batted in the firstinnings. “We have played well but we could have done better in thefirst innings. We could have scored a few more runs in the firstinnings. Thanks to Bhajji (Harbhajan) and Sameer (Dighe) who addeduseful 90 runs, we had a decent total. Also, our bowlers could havedone a bit better, I thought they bowled short. We should have pitchedit up."Asked if he was worried whether Zaheer Khan would go the Nehra wayafter he was warned twice, Ganguly said that it crossed his mind. “Itdid cross my mind but Zaheer but was alright today. He came back overthe wicket and he was okay. We have a thought to carry back to Hararewhen we pick the team for second Test.”Wright too had his reaction on the matter. “I thought it was alearning process for all of us. Monitoring of the danger area istighter in Test matches. I should have monitored it myself but it is alearning process. As Sourav mentioned, it happened very quickly. Weknow we have time between this and the next Test match and we have towork very hard on it.”