When India going wicketless in the first session and Harbhajan Singh on the field as a substitute, skipper Sourav Ganguly would have loved to toss the ball to the offie. After all, when options ran out Ganguly had to try out part-time spinners Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar and they bowled 11 overs between them. At that point of time, a thought must have crossed his mind that the three-pacer-one-spinner formula had failed to work.But the captain was not willing to buy this line and justified his decision to play three seamers in the match. ‘‘You don’t judge these things at start (the Pakistani tailenders resisting the attack) at the start of the match. The wicket had moisture and our decision was pretty fair. We must give credit to Pakistan,’’ he said.Giving due credit to both the Pakistani batsmen, the Indian skipper said he believed in looking ahead and insisted that‘‘Kolkata will be a new Test.’’ Ganguly, however, admitted that the match slipped out of their hands ‘‘when they (Pakistan) had a lead of 110 runs and later when just 35 to 38 overs were left. Razzaq and Akmal batted brilliantly today.’’
