March 9, 2003	Sunday	Muharram 5, 1424

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JOHANNESBURG, March 8: Indian coach John Wright must be delighted, and relieved, the team’s left hand knows what its right hand is doing.

The Indians left their supporters sweating in Cape Town on Friday night when, chasing Kenya’s modest 225-6, they lost Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar and Mohammad Kaif quickly to to make it 24-3.

With the top three right-handers gone, including the master himself, India were steered out of the woods by two southpaws, captain Saurav Ganguly and the ever-improving Yuvraj Singh.

Of course Rahul Dravid, a right-hander, did his bit, making 32 in a fourth wicket stand of 84 with Ganguly, but victory was still miles away when the vice-captain gave leg-spinner Collins Obuya a tame return catch.

It was left to Ganguly and Yuvraj to seal the six-wicket win with an unbroken 118-run stand for the fifth wicket.

Ganguly’s 107 not out lifted him to a 21st century, second in the all-time list behind team-mate Tendulkar’s tally of 34.

He also became the only batsman in this World Cup to score two centuries, having made 112 against Namibia during the preliminary league.

Yuvraj smashed his second successive half-century, his unbeaten 58 against Kenya as valuable as the 50 not out against Pakistan last Saturday.

“The depth in our batting stood out against Kenya, but I would prefer not have such days,” Wright said.

India, who play Sri Lanka next at the Wanderers here on Monday, showed there is more to them than Tendulkar’s genius alone.

Ganguly, credited with backing his players at all times, modestly gave the 22-year-old Yuvraj and the seasoned Dravid all the credit.

“Yuvraj releases the pressure on you all the time by taking singles and hitting boundaries. He was fantastic,” Ganguly said.

It was only the fifth time in 20 day-night games at Newlands that a side batting second won.

“Batting on this beautiful pitch in the afternoon was easy, but the ball moved around a bit in the evening,” Ganguly said.

“I thought my partnership with Dravid was a key to the outcome of the match.”

With 12 points in the bag, India need a win over Sri Lanka or against New Zealand at Centurion on Friday, to ensure their place in the semifinals.

But Ganguly conceded a lot of hard work remained to be done before that, especially in the field where India dropped four catches against Kenya.

“Our fielding was very poor and we will have to improve and set the record straight before Monday’s game against Sri Lanka,” Ganguly said.

“If one of your best fielders, Dinesh Mongia, drops a catch, and another, Mohammad Kaif, puts one down, you know it is just one of those days.”

Three of those catches were off the bat of opener Kennedy Obuya who went on to make 79.

Ganguly, however, refused to use the after-effects of the emotionally draining win over Pakistan in Centurion as an excuse.

“We had six days after the Pakistan match. Whatever mental stress or tiredness there was, six days was enough. We were just not up for the game,” Ganguly said and gave Kenya due credit.

“It’s not a flash in the pan. I’ve always said the smaller teams can cause problems for the big sides.

“Kenya beat Sri Lanka and they gave us a scare. They gave us a tough time and we had to play well to pull it through.”—AFP