Indians get it back Wright away

Coach John Wright slammed the top order batsmen for Indian teams8217;s embarassing 21-run defeat against Kent in the second warm-up match, ...

Coach John Wright slammed the top order batsmen for Indian teams8217;s embarassing 21-run defeat against Kent in the second warm-up match, saying the batsmen failed to take advantage of very good conditions. 8220;From the batting perspective it is the chasing which has let us down before. It the defeat is not a bad reminder8221;, a disappointed Wright said after the match at the St Lawrence ground yesterday.

Chasing a target of 285 for a victory, the Indians despite their entire batting line-up playing in the match, could manage 263 all out in 49 overs in good batting conditions to suffer their first defeat on the tour.

In a blunt criticism of his team8217;s top order batsmen, Wright said 8220;When you are chasing 285, the top three has got to take advantage of very good batting conditions8221;.

Though captain Saurav Ganguly 64, Virender Sehwag 45 and Dinesh Mongia 37 all got into their stride, they did not push on to make significant contributions.

8220;Someone like Sehwag has to go on. He is getting out for too many 30s and 40s. I thought 284 was probably too few for this ground. The result was obviously disappointing8221;, Wright said.

Wright said the three youngsters in the team 8211; Dinesh Mongia, Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif 8211; need to cope up with a fair bit of pressure. 8220;We need big innings from them now8221;. Unlike his batsmen, Wright was not too harsh on his bowlers. Anil Kumble, returning to the team after an injury lay-off, was a big plus, he said. Kumble bowled his 10 overs for only 28 runs and picked up two wickets as well on a very benign batting pitch. He is returning to the side after recuperation from a surgery on his broken jaw, suffered during the Windies tour. Wright also was soft on young fast bowler Tinu Yohannan who was hit for 25 runs by Mark Ealham 74 not out in the penultimate over of the Kent innings.

8220;Tinu is young and raw. He has got to learn from these experiences,8221; he explained. Wright did not think the lacklustre performance of his bowlers put his side in any disadvantage ahead the triangular series.

Press Trust Of India