Ganguly Elated

Indian captain Sourav Ganguly was elated by India's heart-stopping victory, but was displeased by the sudden loss of wickets that almost messed up a comfortable chase at the fag end.

"I am happy with the series-win, but not at all happy with the way we messed up things in the end," Ganguly said after India won the penultimate game by four wickets with a ball to spare.

Praising Sachin Tendulkar, who cracked a super 122 ganguly said, "he batted very well, but I thought he would complete the innings."

"I thought we gave away 20-25 extra runs," he said, but added that Anil Kumble and Sachin Tendulkar bowled very well to contain the opposition in the middle overs.

 

Man-of-the-match Tendulkar said, "if someone bats as well as Sourav did, it is important to hang around and give him support," he said.

Tendulkar said three dismissals including his own, came on full tosses and hoped it did not happen again.

A disappointed South African skipper Hansie Cronje said Ganguly and Tendulkar "took the match away from us."

Cronje, whose side failed to defend a mammoth 301 in the first one-dayer at Kochi and again could not check India here despite amassing 282 runs to concede the series, said "we were happy with 301 at Kochi and were happy with our total here."

The South African skipper said, "it is not the question of not putting up an adequate total, but not defending that total properly."

After the final game at Nagpur on March 19, both teams travel to Sharjah for the triseries, with Pakistan as the third team.