'Victory means a lot for the young side': Ganguly

Guwahati, March 19: Skipper Sourav Ganguly on Tuesday said the emphatic 101-run victory in the one-day series decider against Zimababwe meant a lot for his young side and many positives had emerged from the series.

"I think we played very well in the series. It is quite satisfying to win by such a big margin since we have a young and inexperienced side," Ganguly told reporters after the match.

The victory must have been all the more satisfying for the Indian skipper after having tasted defeat in nine previous final matches and Ganguly said, "better late than never. Yes, we had not been winning in the finals but at the same time we must have played quite well to reach the finals."

Underlining some of the positives that had emerged from the series, Ganguly said, "The performance of Dinesh Mongia, Yuvraj Singh, Mhd Kaif and Ajay Ratra have been quite impressive. They just have to be consistent."

Ganguly said a number of young players had been tried out recently keeping in mind the World Cup and healthy competition augured well for Indian cricket.

"We have tried out a lot of youngsters and some of them have started delivering the goods. It is a good sign if these youngsters can win matches on their own for the team. In fact, Yuvraj Singh turned the series for us," he said.

Elaborating further on victory, Ganguly said the team had gambled by going in with an extra batsman and he was mentally prepared to have a longer spell with the ball to make up for the absence of a specialist bowler. "But we knew the score of 333 was always going to be difficult even though it was a good batting wicket."

On whether he was satisfied with wicket-keeper Ajay Ratra's performance, Ganguly said, "I think he has been very good. He did not get too many opportunities with the bat though".

Zimbabwe skipper Stuart Carlisle said his bowlers bowled too many loose balls which allowed the Indians to post an imposing total. "I have never seen my bowlers bowling so many full tosses. They gave so much width — A score of 300-odd runs was always going to be very difficult for us."

He said the tour had been a learning process for many of the youngsters in his team. "Our fielding was very good right through. There were also brilliant individual performances by Douglas Marillier, Douglas Hondo, Alistair Campbell and Andy Flower.

The skipper had a special word of mention for young keeper Tatenda Taibu saying he had done a wonderful job considering the fact it was hard to keep wickets in India.

Carlisle also singled out Yuvraj Singh for praise. "He can really hit the ball very hard. But he will be special if he can score runs on pitches in England and Australia also."

Man-of-the-match and the series Dinesh Mongia said he was disappointed at not being able to capitalise on the starts that he got in the earlier matches. "Today I was determined to stay on in the middle and play a big innings."

The left-hander, who remained unbeaten on 159 today, said opening the innings was not "a big thing" for him. "It was an opportunity for me and I thank God that such an opportunity came my way.

"Its nice to be among runs and wickets," said Mongia who complemented his good show with the bat with some good fielding and three wickets in Mohali in the five-match series.

Mongia received Rs 50,000 from the Assam government and cheques for Rs 50,000 (man-of-the-series) and 35,000 (man-of- the-match) from sponsors Pepsi for his exploits.