Dravid defends experimentation by Cricket Archive Staff Reporter

---

Player:

RS Dravid, RV Uthappa

---

DateLine: 1st February 2007

 

Notwithstanding the three-wicket loss, skipper Rahul Dravid defended India's experimentation in the third one-dayer against the West Indies.

 

India made five changes to the team that won the previous match at Cuttack for a 2-0 lead in the four-match series, only to allow the visitors close the gap with a comfortable win in the day-night clash at MA Chidambaram stadium on Saturday.

 

Dravid cited the example of 21-year old opener Robin Uthappa, who made a 41-ball 70, in justifying India making wholesale changes to the eleven.

 

"Uthappa played a great innings. We are giving some opportunities to these guys and they are using it. I hope he continues to play like that," the captain said after the match. "We are doing some experiments going into the World Cup and trying out a few options."

 

Dravid agreed that the Indian total was way below what the true Chepauk pitch was worth.

 

"We were not a few runs short. We needed 330 on this track. This was a very good batting track," he said. "We got a good start but lost wickets at the end. It was a collapse, 320-330 would have been a competitive score."

 

India began strongly to put up 232 for three in 35 overs, but were all out for 268 in 48 overs. The Windies overhauled the target comfortably with more than six overs to spare.

 

Asked about playing only four bowlers, Dravid said, "We can look it the either way because it was a good track and we had an extra batsman so we should have scored more runs."