India wins practice match, ganguly can bat lower in the order

Nairobi, october 1: Valuable knocks from Yuvraj Singh and Vinod Kambli enabled India to win their only practice match against the West Ind...

Nairobi, october 1: Valuable knocks from Yuvraj Singh and Vinod Kambli enabled India to win their only practice match against the West Indies by six wickets at Ruaraka Sports Club here today ahead of the ICC Knock-out Tournament commencing Tuesday.

Skipper Saurav Ganguly had slotted himself today to bat at No. 7 after India, chasing a target of 171, were struggling at 70 for three in the 20th over. Thanks to the batting of Yuvraj Singh and Kambli, Ganguly was not required to bat as India notched up the runs with six wickets to spare.

The captain, normally an opener, switched to a lower-order position, leaving the place to Tamil Nadu’s S Sriram in today’s warm-up match.

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It was an indication of Ganguly coming lower in the batting order to beef up the jelly middle order in the ICC tournament when India play their first match against host Kenya on October 3.

This is notwithstanding the fact that Sriram and Sachin Tendulkar, the other opener, got out in twenties today against a quick West Indies attack on a lively pitch.

On Ganguly’s chances of batting down the order, coach Anshuman Gaekwad said at the moment "it was yes and no. Basically, we put Ganguly in the middle order because we wanted to try youngsters".