Colombo: Indian skipper Saurav Ganguly said his team's refusal to give up even when it had its backs to the wall helped it overcome South Africa in the ICC Champions Trophy semi-final on Wednesday night. "We played fantastically. The best point about our cricket in the last 10 months has been that we have not given up, we have always fought back," Ganguly told the media after his side bottled up the South African batsmen in the end overs to run away victors by 10 runs. India will meet the winners of Friday's second semi-final between Australia and hosts Sri Lanka.
The Africans were cruising along towards a certain victory at 192 for one off 37 overs, but century-making opener Herschelle Gibbs retired with cramps and gave a small leeway for India to break back into the game from behind. South Africa ended at 251 for six from 50 overs, chasing India's 261 for nine. "We got an opportunity when Gibbs went off," Ganguly said. He praised India's fielders and bowlers for performing well under pressure, and singled out Yuvraj Singh for taking two brilliant catches. "We were down, but not out we knew that if we get a couple of wickets, we always had a chance to come back into the game, as it will be difficult for new batsmen on this wicket, which was turning and bouncing," Ganguly said.
"We worked hard till the end, I think that's the key in this match." Meanwhile man-of-the-match Sehwag was a very happy man. "I'm very happy. We had almost lost the match. But it was a magical spell," he said after returning figures of 5-0-25-3 to go with his 59 runs. "I've been bowling for Delhi and also I bowled in my first One-day International against Australia," he said adding that now he was looking forward to Sunday's final against either World Champions Australia or hosts Sri Lanka. South African captain Shaun Pollock was dejected at his not being able to finish the task. "We had eight wickets in hand. We needed to hammer it home. But in the end we were just not good enough. It was unfortunate," he said about the required 100 runs off 20 overs at one stage. "We will sit together and make sure that we don't commit such a mistake again." Pollock also praised India's batting. "The first 30 overs they were awesome. All credit to India." On Gibbs retiring hurt, the skipper said Gibbs suffered cramps on both his hands. "We tried to retrieve him but it didn't work."
Tags: icc 2002, icc champions trophy, india, new zealand, premadasa, sri lanka, pakistan, australia, england, bangladesh, , zimbabwe, kenya, netherlands, west indies, south africa, semi final, finals, scorecards, statistics, ground.
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