We can be very dangerous from here on: Dravid

Rex Clementine

July 28, 2001

Indian stand-in captain Rahul Dravid issued a warning to the other two sides participating in the Coca-Cola Cup after India beat Sri Lanka convincingly by seven wickets in the sixth match of the tournament at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Saturday.

"We can be very dangerous from here on. If we have some luck from here on, we can be a real threat to the other two sides," said the right handed batsmen who came in as captain for this game after Sourav Ganguly was given a one match suspension.

"It was just for this one game," said Dravid, reflecting on his role as captain in today's match. "At this moment I am happy to play under Sourav. He's done a wonderful job as captain during the last year. I was in for today because of an unfortunate incident."

Sri Lanka started off very well with the dangerous opening duo of Romesh Kaluwitharana and Sanath Jayasuriya putting on an opening partnership of 103 runs off 24.2 overs, but thereafter things changed quickly and Sri Lanka were shot out for 183.

"With Sanath and Kalu in the middle, the pressure was really on us. But the run rate was under control and when we got that wicket of Jayasuriya I knew we had a real chance," said Dravid.

Chasing a modest target, the Indian batsmen initially struggled a bit, but in the end they reached it comfortably. "We just didn't want lose our wickets to Murali chasing such a small target. That's why we just played him off" said Dravid on his side's policy of playing Muttiah Muralitharan whose 10 overs just cost 28 runs today.

Man of the match, VVS Laxman made an unbeaten 87 and made sure India reached the score without much difficulty. "We didn't want to lose early wickets with the experiences of the past few games. I just wanted to play as straight as possible and stay there. Luckily the bowlers had done a great job for us."

Laxman has to undergo a knee surgery, which will take at least four weeks to heal. He was to return to India for his surgery and was unlikely to play this game, but the suspension of Ganguly ruled out any chances of his going back to India to attend to his injury;

"You can't be worrying about injuries or anything once you are in the final eleven. After Sourav was out, I had to play. Our physiotherapist has done a tremendous job," reflected the right-hander who might go back to India if the injury does not heal.

Chasing the small target, the Indian batsmen had problems against the Sri Lankan bowlers. Laxman himself struggled against Murali but in the end he finished off in style, "Initially it was very difficult to play Murali," said Laxman. "This is the first time I have played him, so it was a big challenge for me to face him. He's a great spinner no doubt about it, but I won't disclose my tactics of playing him."

Sri Lankan captain Sanath Jaysuriya accepted that his side had put up a poor performance.

"It was a disappointing performance by our batsmen once again. We should have pushed for more singles and worked out our ways of scoring off the Indian bowlers. But to be honest the Indians bowled well."

However the captain said the team has played relatively well throughout the tournament, "There's nothing to panic. If you take the last game we came back well. This was just one of those days where nothing went our way."

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Series/Tournaments

Coca-Cola Cup (Sri Lanka)

Teams

India