Indian media heap praise on Ponting’s men
Australia, who went unbeaten in the tournament, punished the Indian bowling attack by piling up 359 from 50 overs at Wanderers on Sunday, and then dismissed their opponents for just 234 to comfortably defend the title they won in 1999.
“It’s official. The Australians are the best one-day team, the Indians are second best,” the Indian Express said under a front-page headline: “Cup not ours but raise a toast”.
Australian captain Ricky Ponting struck a masterly unbeaten 140 in the final but India can take some consolation in that batsman Sachin Tendulkar was named Man-of-the-Tournament for scoring 673 runs in 11 games.
“Ricky Ponting’s men showed there is a gulf separating the two teams that measures almost twice as much as the distance between Mumbai and Melbourne,” the Indian Express added.
The Hindustan Times, which said Australia were the “greatest one-day team in history”, appealed for fans to not vent their anger on the Indian team like they have done in the past.
“Take heart, our boys are special,” said a banner headline on the sports page of the paper, which added: “Australia deserve to be champions and our boys, equally as much, deserve to be in the final. Well done.”
Just last month, Indian fans had protested angrily against the team’s poor start to the tournament following their nine-wicket loss to Australia in the group stage.
But, The Statesman said, there was no shame in losing to Australia.
“We can look back on South Africa 2003 with fondness, and ahead to West Indies 2007 with hope,” The Times of India said.
However, drunken cricket fans, dejected after India failed to lift the trophy, threw crude home-made bombs and attacked a police vehicle in eastern India, injuring five policemen, police said on Monday.
The policemen were injured, one of them seriously, when an angry mob turned violent in Baragarh village in Hooghly district, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) north-east of Kolkata, capital of the eastern state of West Bengal, police said.
West Bengal police deputy inspector Narayan Chandra Ghosh said that immediately after the match on Sunday, about 20 drunken youths hurled crude bombs at a mobile police vehicle.
Police fired live rounds to disperse them. Ghosh said there were no arrests.
He said a heated argument over India’s defeat among youngsters in the industrial city of Howrah, about 20 kilometers west of Kolkata, also sparked violence early Monday. No one was injured.
Ghosh said security outside skipper Saurav Ganguly’s residence here was stepped up to check any demonstration by cricket fans.
Ganguly’s house and that of team-mate Mohammed Kaif were stoned by mobs after India were beaten by Australia early in the tournament.
On Sunday, millions of cricket fans all over the country, who had planned victory rallies if India had won, abandoned their plans and remained indoors.
Posters of the Indian players, decorated earlier with flowers and miniature lamps in clubs and big buildings, were ripped off walls and Indian flags were taken down.—Reuters/AFP