'We Can Win Overseas'

Ever an optimist, Indian captain Saurav Ganguly still firmly believes his team has theability to win overseas and pointed to the three away victories recorded under his captaincy to argue his case.

"It is not true that we can't win abroad. If that was the case, we wouldn't have won in Trinidad. We won a Test inBulawayo (Zimbabwe) and in Kandy (Sri Lanka).

"I think it has more to do up in the mind," said Ganguly after losing the fifth Test and the series against West Indies1-2 yesterday. Ganguly has now captained India in 23 Tests winning 10, losing seven and drawing the other six.

He admitted his side has consistently failed to improve its performance in a crunch situation. "I think what makes agood team is to give its best when it is required the most -- in the last Test of the series or in a key crunch match whichis going to be a decider.

"We haven't done well in the last one year, whether it is in Zimbabwe or Sri Lanka or in the West Indies. This is alsotrue of our performance in the finals of one-day tournaments. That's why I said it has to got to be more in the mind."

"It is not that we are not tough mentally. It is just that a little bit of extra is required at the crunch time," apensive looking skipper said.

Ganguly said his side tried not to think about the huge target to avoid putting pressure on itself. "Well, 400 is a lot of runs to make in the fourth innings.We just walked out to bat thinking of playing a Test innings. We never thought of making 400 because it would put extrapressure on the team."

Ganguly also refused to blame the conditions at Barbados and Jamaica for the defeats. "I don't think the conditions inJamaica and Barbados were the key factors. Nothing much happened in Barbados except for the first 10 overs which wouldhappen anywhere. I thought it was a good Test wicket in Barbados.

"The same thing here. We won the toss and we bowled and let them score too many runs on the first day on a wicketwhich had a bit for the seam bowlers," Ganguly said.

Coach John Wright, however, criticised his batsmen for playing loose strokes on the fourth evening. "Those twoparticular shots (hooks by Ganguly and Laxman). To be honest, we couldn't afford to lose that many wickets coming into thelast day, in terms of winning the game or saving the game or taking advantage of the weather conditions that prevailed toallow you to escape with a draw or even victory."

"When you needed that many runs, you needed a couple of hundreds," he said. Wright too looked back at the defeats in the Barbados andJamaica games and felt the first day was critical and said it determined the fate of the Tests.

"We tried very hard in this series to do well in the first session of a Test. In these two Tests, we lost because wedidn't play the first sessions well. If we could have done it, our batting performance could have come off a little better,"Wright said.

He also empathised with his pace trio for the kind of workload they had to take in the last three back-to-back Tests. "It was physically challenging coming out of the lastmatch. But all of them were fit and fresh enough to play that Test match. That's why we need to get fitter and stronger.This is one of the areas of fast bowling. It's a tough job, especially playing the amount of cricket we do," he said.

India's problems were accentuated by the consistent failure of its openers to give a decent start in the series."You do need to get your opening position sorted out. It is too critical an area," Wright said.

Particularly disappointing was the failure of its trusted opener Shiv Sunder Das who collected only 122 runs from eightinnings in the series.

On the other hand West Indies openers excelled and Ganguly was very impressed by the performance of Chris Gayle andWavell Hinds in this game. "In the first hour of the morning, they never let the batget ahead in front. I thought it was tremendous application from them which turned the Test match forthem"

Man-of-the-match Hinds hit a century in front of his home crowd and put on a hundred-plus partnership with Gayle for thefirst wicket.

PTI