da pinnacle： Indian stand-in captain Rahul Dravid issued a warning to the other twosides participating in the Coca-Cola Cup after India beat Sri Lankaconvincingly by seven wickets in the sixth match of the tournament atthe Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on
Rex Clementine28-Jul-2001Indian stand-in captain Rahul Dravid issued a warning to the other twosides participating in the Coca-Cola Cup after India beat Sri Lankaconvincingly by seven wickets in the sixth match of the tournament atthe Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Saturday."We can be very dangerous from here on. If we have some luck fromhere on, we can be a real threat to the other two sides," said theright handed batsmen who came in as captain for this game after SouravGanguly was given a one match suspension."It was just for this one game," said Dravid, reflecting on his roleas captain in today’s match. "At this moment I am happy to play underSourav. He’s done a wonderful job as captain during the last year. Iwas in for today because of an unfortunate incident."Sri Lanka started off very well with the dangerous opening duo ofRomesh Kaluwitharana and Sanath Jayasuriya putting on an openingpartnership of 103 runs off 24.2 overs, but thereafter things changedquickly and Sri Lanka were shot out for 183."With Sanath and Kalu in the middle, the pressure was really on us.But the run rate was under control and when we got that wicket ofJayasuriya I knew we had a real chance," said Dravid.Chasing a modest target, the Indian batsmen initially struggled a bit,but in the end they reached it comfortably. "We just didn’t want loseour wickets to Murali chasing such a small target. That’s why we justplayed him off" said Dravid on his side’s policy of playing MuttiahMuralitharan whose 10 overs just cost 28 runs today.Man of the match, VVS Laxman made an unbeaten 87 and made sure Indiareached the score without much difficulty. "We didn’t want to loseearly wickets with the experiences of the past few games. I justwanted to play as straight as possible and stay there. Luckily thebowlers had done a great job for us."Laxman has to undergo a knee surgery, which will take at least fourweeks to heal. He was to return to India for his surgery and wasunlikely to play this game, but the suspension of Ganguly ruled outany chances of his going back to India to attend to his injury;"You can’t be worrying about injuries or anything once you are in thefinal eleven. After Sourav was out, I had to play. Our physiotherapisthas done a tremendous job," reflected the right-hander who might goback to India if the injury does not heal.Chasing the small target, the Indian batsmen had problems against theSri Lankan bowlers. Laxman himself struggled against Murali but in theend he finished off in style, "Initially it was very difficult toplay Murali," said Laxman. "This is the first time I have playedhim, so it was a big challenge for me to face him. He’s a greatspinner no doubt about it, but I won’t disclose my tactics of playinghim."Sri Lankan captain Sanath Jaysuriya accepted that his side had put upa poor performance."It was a disappointing performance by our batsmen once again. Weshould have pushed for more singles and worked out our ways of scoringoff the Indian bowlers. But to be honest the Indians bowled well."However the captain said the team has played relatively wellthroughout the tournament, "There’s nothing to panic. If you take thelast game we came back well. This was just one of those days wherenothing went our way."