Dravid led from the front with a well-compiled 74 in his side’s 182-run win against the Netherlands on a pitch with early life and seam movement.
MONTEGO BAY/JAMAICA: With the Caribbean pitches tending to slow down as the game progresses, Indian captain Rahul Dravid has asked his batsmen to convert good starts into big scores in the World Cup. “Batsmen who get set should get big scores since the pitches (here) gets slower,” Dravid said.
“As the tournament goes on, one would find that in any significant score, there would be at least one big innings”, he said. In Tuesday’s warmup match against the Netherlands, both Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar got impressive half centuries in the team total of 300 for 9 but the likes of Virender Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly, Robin Uthappa, Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni failed to make the most of their good starts.
Dravid, however, asserted that he was pretty comfortable with the team he had got and so was the case with other members of the side. “I’m happy with the three in the top-order. Robin Uthappa, given the freedom with which he bats, can utilise the Power Play overs well. It’s important to do so for once the field is spread and restrictions have been removed. Flexibility is key”, Dravid said.
Dravid led from the front with a well-compiled 74 in his side’s 182-run crushing defeat of the Netherlands on a pitch with early life and seam movement. Sachin Tendulkar warmed up on a confident note with a fluent 61 and the experienced duo put on 116 runs for the fourth wicket to post an imposing 300 for nine.
“The wickets are expected to be a bit slow,” Dravid said. “In closer games, the one batsman who gets set on these wickets will have to go on.”
Brief scores: India: 300-9 in 50 overs (V Sehwag 28, R Uthappa 20, S Tendulkar 61, R Dravid 74, MS Dhoni 21, Irfan Pathan 25*; Ryan ten Doeschate 5/57, Peter Borren 2/45) beat The Netherlands: 118 in 37.5 overs (Bas Zuiderent 32, Ryan ten Doeschate 31; Harbhajan 2/24, Kumble 2/14, Yuvraj 4/12)
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