Australian captain Ricky Ponting has said that his side ‘were the only ones trying to take the game forward’ after they were forced to settle for a draw in the opening test match against India in Bangalore.
India were set 299 to win in the fourth innings of the match, but didn’t really give it a go and finished the final day on 177-4. Ricky Ponting has said that it is no wonder India draw a lot of games and that he was disappointed with the way they reacted to ‘aggressive cricket’ from Australia.
Despite these claims from Ricky Ponting, India will claim they did what they had to do. It was very, very important that they didn’t lose this first test match, after all. The chances of India chasing 299 were rather slim to begin with, but when they lost Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid early on, all cricket odds were ruling out victory for the home side.
Gautam Gambhir followed soon after and at 77-3 it is no wonder that Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman played it safe as they put on 61 for the fourth wicket. It was then the same for Sourav Ganguly who only managed 26 from his 68 balls.
So, Ricky Ponting does have a point when he says that India didn’t exactly give their undivided attention on victory. Perhaps they do settle for draws to often, but in this case, I think it was understandable. Hopefully it won’t be the pattern for the series though.
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