Indian news round-up

Not entirely satisfied, Indian captain Sourav Ganguly and coach John Wright felt that there was still scope for improvement in the team's performance after they had defeated Zimbabwe for the second straight time to reach the final of the Coca Cola Cup triangular series.

"We gave away 90 runs in the last 10 overs which were far too many to give away on this track," said Ganguly. "We started well in the morning session but we didn't bowl well in the last 10 overs. We could have bowled a lot better with the ball seaming around on this wicket." On the mini Indian collapse, Ganguly said, "we were 184 for two when I got out and then we lost four wickets. I would not say they were poor shots but rather wrong ones. We need to pull ourselves up.

Wright was more critical and said the team has an "awful" lot to learn from this win. "Honestly, if you look at the performance and not the result, we need to play lot better than that. I think it was a disappointing performance. We won a toss which gave us a big advantage and Zimbabwe was a side without its two key players. So we really should have beaten them easily. We nearly threw it away with some poor shots and also we gave far too many runs in the field."

An obviously relieved Saurav Ganguly, who ended his recent run-drought with a painstaking 85 to lay the foundation for India's four-wicket win against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo on Wednesday, thanked one and all for supporting him through his lean period.

"It is good to score runs. I thank my teammates, family, friends and all supporters here and back home for their encouraging words," the happy Indian captain said.

Man-of-the-match Rahul Dravid, who saw his team home with an unbeaten 72, said, "Sourav showed a lot of character to hang in there and score runs." On his own performance, Dravid said "I am happy to score a match-winning knock and continue my good form on the tour. Even in the nets I am hitting the ball well."

Police have arrested two persons on charges of betting on the India- Zimbabwe triangular one-day series match in Bulawayo on Wednesday.

Acting on a tip-off, a police team raided a hotel in Meerut and nabbed Rajkumar and Ramesh Chandra Bhati red-handed engaging in gambling and running 'satta' through mobile phones, Additional Superintendent of Police, Naveen Arora told PTI on Thursday.

He said that four of their accomplices managed to flee and added that mobile phones and some cash were seized from the accused. A case under gambling act has been registered against the accused.