Hard-fought win: Azharuddin

CALCUTTA, MARCH 21: Winning is the most encouraging part,'' the Indian captain Mohammed Azharuddin said after winning the second Test agai...

CALCUTTA, MARCH 21: 8220;Winning is the most encouraging part,8221; the Indian captain Mohammed Azharuddin said after winning the second Test against Australia at the Eden Gardens here. Explaining his point, the skipper continued that India have not been winning too many events in the recent past. 8220;Now that we have started winning, the team morale is again on the high.8221;

Azharuddin said that he had not expected his team to win the Test with a day to spare. 8220;We wanted some early breakthroughs and Srinath did the job.8221;

Although the victory appeared easy, Azharuddin added that in fact, it had been quite difficult. 8220;You have to work hard to win and the boys applied themselves well to the task.8221; He said that just winning the first two Tests and the series does not mean that they will relax before the third Test.

8220;We have to work equally hard to win the one at Bangalore too.8221;

In spite of having found a good opening pair, Azharuddin would not say that the same combination would be persisted with.

Notquite terming the Australians weak, Azharuddin said that India had played better than their opponents. 8220;We fielded better than them and converted our half-chances.8221;

VANQUISHED TAYLOR LAUDS INDIA

The Australian captain Mark Taylor felt that the main reason behind his team8217;s poor show has been the long season they had behind them. 8220;In contrast, India are playing a Test series after a long time and the results are showing.8221; He rued the absence of bowlers like Glenn McGrath and Paul Reiffel, but did not hesitate in praising India. 8220;They have outplayed us in all departments of the game in this Test series so far. They have perhaps played their best cricket in this series in two years.8221; He also added that Australia have not played their best cricket yet.

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Having seen a lot of Indian cricket in recent times, Taylor considers India a better one-day side than a Test side, but again stressed that the home side had played very good Test cricket in this series. He felt that the Indians had batted reallywell, 8220;getting about four runs an over.8221; Setting the fielding, he added was quite difficult in such situations. 8220;I tried everything to get a wicket but nothing seemed to work.8221; Taylor added with a laugh.