Young guns come in for praise

Mumbai: Former captains Dilip Vengsarkar and Chandu Borde have praised the Indian team, particularly the youngsters, for their performance in the recently concluded Videocon cup against Sri Lanka.

But the duo also warned the team of a tough series against the South Africans who have not lost in their last 19 ODIs.

"I would give credit to the Indian team as a whole for the success against Sri Lanka. Everyone played well," Vengsarkar said.

"The first two matches set the trend in the series and the Lankans could never recover after losing these. But I hope the series against South Africa will not be as one-sided as it was against Lanka," he added.

"Irfan Pathan's graph is rising dramatically. He did everything that was asked of him and whenever the need arose. Dhoni also played very well, especially at Pune where he changed his style to suit the needs of the team. He ensured that India did not lose any more wickets and stayed till victory was achieved."

Vengsarkar also credited Rahul Dravid and Greg Chappell for the superb run of the squad and said the duo had stuck up a nice understanding and a lot of thinking had gone into the strategy to be used before each of the matches.

"Both Dravid and Chappell performed their roles extremely well. A lot of thinking had gone into each match. It's a very good sign for the future," he said.

He, however, expressed disappointment over the peformance of players during the Duleep Trophy tournament that was held concurrently with the ODI series against Lanka.

He said, barring Baroda speedster Zaheer Khan, none merited their place in the national squad based on the performance in the inter-zonal domestic meet.

"Zaheer Khan's omission from the ODIs seems to have spurred him on during the Duleep Trophy and he showed a lot of hunger for taking wickets. I expect hin to be recalled for theTest series against Lanka in December," he said.

Borde, speaking from Pune, expressed his surprise at the meek capitulation of the Lankans in the ODI series after having come into it with a lot of confidence on the basis of their victory over India at home a couple of months ago.

"They could not recover from the battering they got in the first match at Nagpur after having come into the series with a lot of confidence. It was an exciting performance from the Indian team," the former Test middle order batsman said.

"While the Lankans' performance dipped the Indians' were on the ascendancy match after match. I was surprised with the confident way the youngsters in the team played, and a lot of due credit should be given to the coach for this aspect," Borde said.