A win, but there's room for improvement

Ramnaresh Sarwan

As you would probably expect I am very happy that we won the game against India last night, and that now propels us into the semi-finals even though we have one more game to play. The victory was not achieved in the sort of way we would have wanted it, though. We were in a very commanding position and we had another mini-collapse towards the end but recovered just in time to get across the finish line.

This is something which we will continue to pay attention to and try to solve it as quickly as we can. We cannot afford for it to happen as frequently as it has been happening, especially with so many talented players in this team.

We all know, from the semis onwards, it will be a do-or-die situation so the next game against England tomorrow will give us an ideal opportunity to solve this batting issue so that it won’t occur in the semi-finals, and the finals once we get through.

I am pleased with the way I batted and I am hoping that I will be able to take this sort of form into the next few games in this tournament and into the Test series against Pakistan. I tried to rotate the strike as much as I could as there was no need for me to take many chances given the way Runako was scoring freely, and we were always keeping up with the required run-rate.

Some people criticised the way Runako and I slowed up towards the end of our partnership but we saw the importance of seeing off the two spinners who we thought were the greatest threats of the Indian bowling attack. We saw in some of the other games that well-set batsmen lost their wickets to key bowlers towards the end of their spells and we wanted to ensure that we saw them off and blunted their effect.

In the end wickets in hand is important and it showed in us winning even though the game went down to the last over.

I have to mention that I thought the crowd turn-out and support, while not unexpected, was outstanding. They were very supportive of us in our other matches. Understandably they were very vocal and supportive of India last night but it was heartening to see some of them were still happy that we won and congratulated us. The Indian fans clearly appreciate the way we played last night.

It is an optional practice session today and I am feeling a bit sore from the game yesterday so I will be spending the afternoon and evening watching and analysing the game between Pakistan and South Africa because there is a clear possibility that we will play one of those two teams in the semi-finals.

I’ve been very bored for the past couple of days. There is not much to do in Ahmedabad, though I did manage to get in a bit of shopping for clothes a few days before the game and it was a bit of fun.

I’ve been spending quite a bit of my time in my room on the internet, mainly chatting on MSN with friends and family and reading Caribbean newspaper websites mostly to find out what is happening in my lovely Guyana and the other Caribbean countries. I’ve also been trying to get a few Bollywood movies with English subtitles. I would particularly like to get a copy of the recently released remake of Don starring Shah Rukh Khan.