'Anil and Munaf set the game up for us' - Dravid
Rahul Dravid credited Anil Kumble and Munaf Patel for "setting up the game" and said although India won with five bowlers in this game, the formula might not be repeated in Mumbai
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His bowling today was fantastic. He bowled really well, he got good reverse and he put the ball in the right areas at good pace. If you are quick, accurate and can swing the ball around, you always pose problems. His three wickets in the morning set the game up for us.
He is a great cricketer but more importantly, he is also a fine person. He has been a huge inspiration for me right the way through, from junior cricket on to first-class cricket for Karnataka and for India. The way he has carried himself, through the ups and down, and that he is still standing there performing as well as he is doing now, is a tribute to his skills as a great cricketer. People do tend to forget that he is a great spin bowler. His quality as a person too is unmistakable. I won't swap Anil [Kumble] for anyone in any conditions.
Piyush [Chawla] didn't get much of a bowl. It can happen sometimes. We are looking to get 20 wickets and looking to be positive. England showed us in the Ashes what an impact you can make when you have five specialist bowlers. If you want to obtain good consistent results, you have to be flexible and take your chances. We backed ourselves and hoped for runs from the lower order, and we got it here.
I am not so sure if we will play five bowlers in Mumbai. It will depend on the wicket, it will depend on the number of bowlers we feel will get us 20 wickets. If it is anywhere near the one on which we played Australia, we won't need five bowlers. I think it should be a good cricket wicket, like it was when we played against South Africa in the one-dayer. We have got options in the side, we could play three spinners or three seamers, and we could use that formula. We are looking at going ahead, and that will make us a better side.
England have a very good attack, one of the better seam attacks I have played. To make those runs in difficult circumstances against a quality attack was extremely satisfying. It was probably one of my most satisfying knocks.
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We have faced a few bowlers, so it's nice to have someone who can give it back.
There is a lot of fight left in them. They are a very competitive unit, a very good side. I expect them to come back hard at us. This win was not easy, the nine-wicket margin doesn't reflect the contest it was.
Everyone scoring runs is important. It's nice to see Veeru [Virender Sehwag] back among the runs. He has been working really hard in the nets. To be fair, he got a very good ball in the first innings. When he gets going, he scores quickly as well, and that makes a lot of difference.
It's going to be a special occasion for me to join a lost of cricketers, some of whom were my heroes growing up. I have had the honour of playing with some of them, it is a special feeling. I never thought when I made my debut in 1996 that I will be playing for as long as I have. Hopefully, I will be in the winning side in that game!
It's never nice to be dismissed in the 90s, but at the end of the day, we won a game of cricket, so it doesn't matter too much.
It was a very good cricket wicket. It had something for everyone, there was bounce and there was turn. The edges were carrying to the slips. And as Flintoff and Pietersen and some of our guys showed, it you are willing to stay at the wicket and play your strokes, you can score runs. Daljit Singh [curator at Mohali] really knows a lot about wickets and knows his stuff. I hope the Board utilises the knowledge of Daljit.
There was some good bowling from both sides; both teams had some very good bowlers.
Last night, losing five wickets in the final session, was crucial. It is tough to come back from that. With myself and [Geriant] Jones at the crease, we always thought we could put a few runs. Probably, [the match turned] in the first innings. If you see the scorecard, a lot of us got in but we needed one of us to go on and get a large score. We carried on fighting and scraping but in the end India were probably little bit too good on the day.
We have lost the captain, Ashley [Giles], Marcus [Trescothick] and [Simon] Jones, we have got a young side. I think we have done well to compete in India. Last week in Nagpur, and in this game we have shown signs we can compete with the best sides in the world. I think this is a good young side, we are showing character. We are going to Mumbai. We are going to learn from the mistakes and improve our performance.
I don't think you could have asked for anything more. The seamers ran in all day and gave it their all. It's probably the batting that let us down. Many of us got in and then got out; it would have been nice if one of us had gone on to score a big hundred and set a target. And then last night was a tricky session. It was tough with the ball bouncing and turning and [Anil] Kumble who has got 500 wickets bowling well.
I don't think so. The atmosphere in the dressing room was never like that. In Test cricket these days it's possible to make up a lot of time even if you lose overs because of rain like we did. All three results were still possible. We believed we could win it and in the end they won.
He has enjoyed playing against us. He got a 10-for in Baroda and he got a 7-for here so we weren't really surprised. He bowled well and got the ball to reverse swing and bowled at a decent pace. I don't think he surprised us [after] the way he bowled in Baroda. And he is in fine form at the moment.
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I think we got a young spinner in Monty Panesar who is learning every day. I thought he bowled well in Baroda and bowled well here. India have got an experienced spinner who has taken 500 wickets and another one with experience in Harbhajan. Monty is learning and I'm very pleased with his progress. It is going to be tough for a young spinner to come and bowl to the likes of Sehwag, Dravid and Tendulkar.
We have shown signs in this game that we can compete with India. In Mumbai we have to go out there, stick together and rally round. This side fights hard. And every quality we have will have to come to the party next week.
Obviously I have had a bit of a hectic game. But honestly I am enjoying it. I don't feel any more tired than I would be if I was just batting and bowling.