Victory a lesson for those criticising us: Ganguly

He had to leave the celebration party midway through to attend the meeting of the selection committee for the third Test at Chennai. As champagne corks were popping out, Sourav Ganguly sat quietly discussing strategy for the next match. But when he came, one could see the look of relief on his face. Immediately after the game had ended, one could see him waving a stump jubilantly to a section of the television commentary box. One could understand who he was he showing it to.

"I've always liked criticism in the positive manner. But when people criticize you for nothing, you cannot accept it. We have been wronged. It was shameful on the part of those who had been criticizing us. However, I was not bothered. If you commit a mistake, there will be a payback someday. A lot of people had written us off. Now what will they predict? This victory is a lesson for all those who had been regularly castigating us" he said sitting in front of the media.

When he was asked why he wasn't looking elated or excited like he usually does, Ganguly said, "It is because the series is not over yet. We still have a job on our hands. We have attained a peak and we have to keep the momentum going. We have to play another five days of very good cricket to really keep the series with us."

Ganguly informed that he had taken a decision to declare one hour after the game started for a couple of reasons. "Firstly, we wanted a target where we would always keep them under pressure. Secondly, I did not want to give them an option of chasing. I wanted to avoid a situation where they would be at 200 for two and I would have to place nine men on the boundary. We wanted a score where we could always have five men around the bat." The Indian captain also pointed out that once Steve was back in the pavilion, a win became a distinct possibility. "He is a man who can handle any sort of pressure. When I had dropped him, I had thought that the match had slipped away. But Harbhajan really bowled a fantastic spell after tea and that set the ball rolling. Even though Singh, Laxman and Dravid brought us back into the match, I would say that we jelled as a team. It was a fantastic effort on the part of everyone."

Ganguly also said that when the team had gone out to bat in the second innings, the approach was to forget the situation of the game. "We were 274 behind. We could not keep that bothering us. So we shut out the figures from our minds and concentrated on accumulating runs. Laxman and Dravid really played a Herculean knock."

The victory has been so emotional for the Indian captain that he now wants to term it the best that he has played in. Earlier his most memorable game used to be the one where he made his debut at Lord's. "But this has been truly outstanding. I don't believe that any side in the world has won a match after being 274 runs behind on the first innings. The fact is that we played better cricket than them in the last two days and won a match from nowhere. That makes it all the more memorable."

When asked whether he thought 75 overs would be sufficient to get the Aussies out, Ganguly replied, "yes, we were confident. The fact is that if you can't get them out for 75 overs another 10 won't make a difference."

Ganguly also had no objection to the changes made by the selectors to the winning combination. "The pitch at Chennai will be for the spinners. So we thought of bringing in Bahutule. It will be very hot there and we may play an extra spinner there. Other than that, Mohanty and Samir Dighe have been asked to be ready in case Javagal Srinath and Nayan Mongia do not recover from their injuries."

Coach John Wright congratulated the team members for their heroic effort. However, he made it clear that he was not complacent. "I am planning to take the team out on a practice session tomorrow morning itself." He also added that it took a lot of character for the team to come back from the situation they were in. "Yes, we've worked hard. But the real effort has come from the boys," he added.