Empty stands for an India-Pak match? Ask Saurav Ganguly why

SHARJAH, MARCH 25: Indian captain Saurav Ganguly on Saturday slammed the kind of pitches prepared for the Coca-Cola Cup one-day cricket se...

SHARJAH, MARCH 25: Indian captain Saurav Ganguly on Saturday slammed the kind of pitches prepared for the Coca-Cola Cup one-day cricket series and blamed the low-scoring games thus far on them. “They have to give wickets where there are runs. The outfield is slow and it adds more to the anguish. The wicket is slow, the ball doesn’t travel and 200 becomes a winning total,” he said.

The classy left-hander said he had a sore and swollen hip, suffered after being struck by an express delivery from Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar, but assured he would play. “There is a lot of swelling but I am not going to sit out.”

Ganguly said the other problem batsmen faced in Sharjah was that the white ball is hard to spot on the white pitch after it gets discoloured. He also refused any suggestion that he preferred to avoid facing Akhtar. “I am bemused when commentators say I tend to avoid Shoaib. I have batted against him, even got a hundred. I don’t know what is the basis of it,” he said.

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He expected the tri-series to be a low-scoring affair and predicted that 250 will be a winning total if the grass on the outfield was not cut.

On Sunday’s match, he said, “if we bat well, one of the top four gets a hundred, we will get 250. I think the first 15 overs cannot be the criteria (for quick scoring) any more. As it happened in India with lot of bounce and the ball coming on to the bat, and outfield also being fast, we were getting to a total of 100 and 110 in the first 15 overs.

“But it doesn’t happen here. Here you look to punch the ball on to the ground. You can’t take the aerial route. The ball skids and hits the bottom of the bat. You can’t hit too many fours even if it clears the in-field,” he opined.

Ganguly said though batting first was an advantage, the first three games saw teams that chased emerging victors. “One of the reasons is because they were chasing small targets.”

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The Indian skipper refused to read much into the prospect of Akram and Akhtar, reportedly still nursing groin injuries, not playing tomorrow. “As far as I think, Pakistan is playing with Akram and Akhtar. If they don’t play, we’ll see it tomorrow. I am not bothered about individual players. They are good, if they play, well and good. And if they don’t, they don’t. We have not really thought about it.

“Pakistan lost last night but tomorrow it will be a different team. It is a one-day game and that in no way should make us complacent.”

About the changes wrought in the team after he took over from Sachin Tendulkar, he said, “we were really desperate to win and that i think is the only way you could come out of it. You need a bit of luck also. I think it is all about how desperate you are and how determined you are to win which matters in the end.”

Asked whether he preferred to set targets for his batsmen in the one-day game, Ganguly said, “it depends on how we are playing. You just have to play normal cricket. I have never played one-day cricket fixing targets.”