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We are peaking at the right time: Ganguly
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February 17, 2007 20:07 IST

After winning his first man of the series award in six years, Sourav Ganguly on Saturday said that both his personal form and that of the Indian team are peaking at the right time for the World Cup.

"We are going into the World Cup with the right frame of mind. We will get similar wickets in the West Indies and it is good that the players are in good form. This is a good outfit," Ganguly said after helping India to a comfortable seven-wicket victory with an unbeaten 58.

Ganguly capped his fairy-tale return to the Indian side by bagging man of the series award for his 168 runs from three innings against Sri Lanka.

The last time the 34-year-old won the man of the series award was on the tour of the West Indies in 2001-02 and his last man of the match performance came at the ICC Champions Trophy in England in 2004 against Kenya.

"It is good to win back-to-back tournaments, against West Indies and Sri Lanka," the left-hander said.

"I have been playing well consistently and scoring runs when required. Since the South Africa series I have been getting runs. It has been going well."

Ganguly played his knock in two parts after retiring early in the innings due to cramps before returning to the crease after the fall of the second wicket.

"I did not sleep last night and I bowled six overs which I had not done in a long while," Ganguly reasoned.

Indian skipper Rahul Dravid praised the players for fighting their way back into the series after being 1-0 down.

"Credit to the boys for the way they fought back into the series. In a three-match series [the first one being washed out by rain) against this kind of opposition, it is tough to comeback from being one match down. It is a great team effort," he said.

Dravid also said that Yuvraj Singh being back among the runs before the World Cup after a long injury lay-off is a good sign for the team.

"It is great that Yuvraj is back in form. It was also great to see Sachin [Tendulkar], Sourav and other batsmen get runs in the series. Our bowling upfront was also good. It has been a fantastic effort," Dravid said.

Losing captain Mahela Jayawardene felt that they had played good cricket through out the series except for today.

"Today we did lots of mistakes at the top order except for Chamara [Silva]. That was the only bright spot," Jayawardene said.

"280-290 would have been a good score on this track. We also gave away too many runs early in the innings and it is always tough to comeback on a wicket like this.

"But our middle order played well in the series. That was one of our concern coming into the series," Jayawardene said pointing to the positives from the tournament.

 

Sri Lanka in India 2007: The Complete Coverage

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