Kirsten happy with youngsters' progress
Posted on Jun 15, 2008 at 19:20 | Updated Jun 16, 2008 at 14:49
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Dhaka: After India's loss to Pakistan in the final of the Kitply Cup, CNN-IBN spoke to the coach of the Indian cricket team, Gary Kirsten, on India's performance in the final and how the team plans to stay afloat despite a full season of cricket ahead.
Digvijay Singh Deo: You must be disappointed with the way you lost, but the boys clearly fought till the end.
Gary Kirsten: Yes. They played good cricket and all credit to Pakistan, it was a tremendous partnership between Salman Butt and Younis Khan, they played exceptional cricket, and one has to give credit where it's due.
Digvijay Singh Deo: Do you think India missed a trick, because initially when India had them under pressure till the first 20 overs when they hadn't scored much. Do you think the turnaround took India by surprise?
Gary Kirsten: I thought they played really well. I don't know think we could have done anything much different. We missed a couple of chances which can happen. But I think what happened is that we stopped creating those chances, and that was due to exceptional batting. It was one of the better performances against spin bowling that I have seen.
Digvijay Singh Deo: When India were batting, do you think maybe a couple of shot selection wasn't proper? Yusuf Pathan hit a couple of fours, Gautam Gambhir hit a ball in the air, even Raina did that. Do you think they will learn with experience?
Gary Kirsten: There were a few errors made in the batting, but again, I thought we put in a great performance to get us as close as we did. We probably didn't get big enough partnerships and lost wickets at crucial times. But we gave it a real go.
We always knew it was going to be a good wicket and that we felt 319 was really on the cards to chase down. I think it happens. You have to take a few risks and sometimes they come off and other times you hole out and the game turns.
Digvijay Singh Deo: People like Praveen Kumar, Piyush Chawla all stepped up. Despite a couple of bad matches here and there, they are coming forward and showing that they can be counted.
Gary Kirsten: I think it's great to have young players who are starting to perform. As I said, there were errors of judgement, but we all do that and as long as they are learning from those mistakes and going forward as an exceptionally talented team with great cricketers who have got real flair in all departments at the moment.
So, I'm very happy with the progress at the moment and hopefully we can continue to work hard and if you continue to prepare well for games, and just guard and play with instinct and the flair this team is capable of.
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