Ganguly and team looking forward to first break in 15 months

Lynn McConnell

January 13, 2003

Almost as big a prize as winning the last game of the National Bank Series with New Zealand in Hamilton tomorrow will be the two weeks break awaiting India when they return home.

A win would mean India had brought the series up to a 4-3 loss, but with the last three wins in succession.

Captain Sourav Ganguly said India needed to win the game because of the value to be had from going into the World Cup with three wins under the belt.

But just as attractive was the thought of two weeks off after 15 months of action and the break would be welcomed by the side.

Ganguly wouldn't look at success as a moral victory because he said he had never believed in moral victories, winning was the thing.

He did say the entire series had been closer than the actual results showed.

There had been some lessons for the Indian side after the dramatic collapse which almost saw them lose the game in Auckland, before getting home by one wicket.

Ganguly said he had avoided talking too much about what had happened because it was not something the side had struck in 16 months.

"There was a bit of panic but I didn't want to raise the issue. We just took it too easy," he said.

Ganguly said the series had been a hard, mentally more than physcially.

Players hadn't spent enough time in the middle to be physically spent. As far as his own form was concerned he said he was hitting the ball well during the best opening stand of the series in Auckland when he and Virender Sehwag added 70 for the first wicket.

"I should have carried on because I had got in," he said.

However, he was confident it would not be too long before he would be back in form.

© Cricinfo

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