Ganguly gives it to Team India

Having proved that Australia can be beaten in Australia with the thrilling win in the floodlit encounter, Ganguly said “We should have won at Melbourne also (in the tri-series opener) but we missed by a whisker. But it is good to play well and win today.”

A grim-faced Ponting had little excuse to offer saying “It was not hard to chase a 300 plus score but we were just not quite good enough”.

“They played very well and put 300 runs. The wicket was very good for batting so it was not hard batting second. We just lost a couple of wickets more than we should have. But credit to them, they played very well,” he said.

Ganguly was all praise for his rookie fast bowlers — Irfan Pathan and Lakshmipathy Balaji who picked seven wickets among them to plot the Aussie downfall.

“Pathan is a big-hearted player. He is one for the future. He is coming out very well and has great attitude,” Ganguly said.

“Balaji did not play the Tests. So it would have taken him a couple of games to get his rhythm. He did well today.”

The contributions of the batsmen was also not lost on the Indian skipper. “The guys are really batting well right now. The way VVS Laxman batted today it seemed he would keep getting runs,” he said while declaring the Gabba as “the best ground in the world”.

Looking to carry forward their good show, Ganguly said “We played well in the Tests. We have done well so far and hope to continue in the same vein as there is lot of cricket still left to be played in this triseries.”

Man-of-the-match VVS Laxman, who scored an unbeaten 103, said it gave him a “lot of satisfaction” to score a century against as good a side as Australia.

“Getting runs against them gives a lot of satisfaction,” said Laxman whose all three one-day centuries have come against Australia.