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London, July 10: Following India's
64-run defeat to England, their first in the series, skipper Sourav
Ganguly said his team will come out in full strength in the last
league encounter against Sri Lanka to prepare fully for the final
on Saturday.
India were without their injured vice-captain
Rahul Dravid whose abilities at holding the innings together was
sorely missed today.
"Today, England outplayed us in every
department of the game," Ganguly said.
"We will come out in full strength in
the next match against Sri Lanka. It will be a good practice before
the final at Lords," he said.
India have already qualified for the Saturday's
final and will play their last league match against Sri Lanka on
Thursday.
Ganguly said star leg-spinner Anil Kumble,
who was seen limping while batting against England today, had developed
a cramp but there was no major injury.
"Anil got a cramp in his leg. We've talked
to the physio and I hope he will be fit for the remainig games,"
he said.
Victorious captain Nasser Hussain said he
was extremely pleased with his team's preformance "and the
way we played today."
"I hope we will be able to maintian this
form in the final.
"(Andrew) Flintoff, (Ronnie) Irani and
(Michael) Vaughan batted really well and it altered the course of
the match. The bowlers also stuck to the basics and bowled good
line and length," Hussain said.
"Irani really worked on his game and
I hope he will repeat his performance in the final.
"Final is a completely different game.
We will have to go back to the basics of the 50 overs game,"
he said.
Man of the match Ronnie Irani, who scored
53 and claimed five wickets, said there was nothing big about his
being promoted to the number three in the batting order today.
"It does not matter much where you are
batting, everyone has got responsiblities to the team and I just
did my duty. I am pretty happy that after a long time I got back
the rhythm in batting," said the all-rounder who scored his
first one-day half-century.
He gave a lot of credit to wicketkeeper Alec
Stewart who was instrumental in giving him three of his five wickets.
"I am really grateful to Alec Stewart.
Alec stood up to the wicket which helped me to bowl the wicket to
wicket line," Irani said. (PTI)
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