Ganguly: this is one of my best Test knocks

Indian captain Sourav Ganguly believes his match winning unbeaten 98 is one of his best ever Test innings. "I think it was one of my best Test knocks because it helped us win the game," he said afterwards. "I was disappointed to miss out on a century, but that is just a landmark."

He admitted that the spell of 13 Test innings without a half-century had been frustrating: "It was even more upsetting because I was the captain of the side. I got few rough decisions along the way, but had some luck today so it's all equal today."

Ganguly went on to score 98 not out and grabbed the initiative away from Sri Lanka in a 91 run partnership for the third wicket with Rahul Dravid. At the end of the third day India looked to have paved the way for a Sri Lankan victory when Muralitharan scored a career best 67 in a frustrating 64 run stand for the last wicket. "Obviously, we were disappointed after a last wicket partnership of 64 runs", he said. "It had cost us a Test Match in Harare and it could have done so here."

"When we came back into the dressing room we said to ourselves `lets forget about the fact that this was a fourth innings and the associated pressure.' The worst scenario was that we were going to lose a Test match, so we decided to play positively."

"I thought that we did pretty well," he said. "Dravid batted superbly, but I was a little bit disappointed with Ramesh. He gets going but doesn't finish it off and he is too good a player to do that."

He pointed out that this was a team performance: "We all needed to contribute to win the game. Everybody played a part. It never boils down to one or two individuals. I have always believed in collective strength and I have never believed in individuals winning or losing matches."

Injuries have plagued the side and ironically, this made the triumph even sweeter, "It was very satisfying to win minus five of your best players due to injury and this will give us confidence. He singled out the bowlers for special praise: "I was very happy with the discipline the bowlers showed and was very happy for Prasad when he got those five wickets. It's tough when you are dropped and he showed lot of character. We now have a good crop of fast bowlers."

He admitted that the failure to finish off the tail needed to be analysed, "We have got to find some way to get rid of the tail-enders. Perhaps we could have brought Harbhajan (Singh) back earlier, but you don't expect Muralitharan to play like that. We have got to sort whether to go for the kill or try to defend because that could have cost us the Test match."

He admitted that the decision to deploy eight fielders on the boundary to a number nine batsman may have been counterproductive: "It didn't work twice, both here and in Harare, so we need to try a different option in the next game."