Ability and character will be tested - Dravid
Rahul Dravid was a downcast man after the embarrassing 157-run defeat at Kingsmead, admitting that his team just wasn't good enough in the face of some hostile and accurate fast bowling from South Africa's quintet
Dileep Premachandran at Durban
22-Nov-2006
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Rahul Dravid was a downcast man after the embarrassing 157-run defeat at
Kingsmead, admitting that his team just wasn't good enough in the face of
some hostile and accurate fast bowling from South Africa's quintet. From
62 for 2, the downward spiral was spectacular and brief, with Andre Nel
and Jacques Kallis picking up 7 for 16 between them.
Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Mahendra Singh Dhoni accounted for 67 of
those runs, and Dravid was forced to admit later that the India's fortunes
on this tour may well rest on his and Tendulkar's shoulders. "We are the
experienced players of the team; we are the ones who have been here
before," he said. "We're pretty disappointed not to have put up a better
show with the bat after we did well to restrict them to 248."
The bowling effort had been full of promise, with the runs kept down
despite a marvellous century from Jacques Kallis. "There were some good
signs with the ball and some positives came out of our bowling," he said.
"I was pretty happy with the way the boys performed in the first half of
the game. But we were just not good enough with the bat."
With Shaun Pollock bowling a superb opening spell, South Africa got the
early breakthrough they needed to defend 248, and once Charl Langeveldt
and Nel produced beautiful deliveries to get rid of Dravid and Tendulkar,
the descent into hell was mercifully quick. "Probably, our shot selection
against some of the fast bowlers is something we need to look at and
reassess when we go into the next match," said Dravid. "We will be
definitely looking to perform much better with the bat. We have to
improve from here and put in some better performances if we want to
competitive in the series."
This was India's 13th one-day defeat in 17 games against South Africa in
these climes, and Dravid accepted that it would take an almighty effort to
turn things around. "It's going to be a challenge," he said. "That's where
your ability and character are tested. And if you can come out of a tour
like this with some good scores and runs, it will give you a lot of
confidence.
"We will have to play better. After going through how we got out, we will
have to learn. I must say that the South Africans bowled well, and we did
not have a good day."
After a nightmarish start to the tour, he can only take consolation in the
fact that it can't get any worse. Or will it?
Dileep Premachandran is features editor of Cricinfo