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| Sunday, 3 February 2002 |
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England aim for moral victory in Bombay, says Fletcher BOMBAY, Feb 2 (Reuters) - England are bidding for a "moral victory" in Sunday's sixth and final game in their one-day series against India, the visiting team's coach Duncan Fletcher has said. The two teams go into the match with India leading the rubber 3-2 but Fletcher said a series-levelling win for England would underline the strength of character in his young team. "To get back to three-all would be quite an achievement. I don't think many sides have done that in India in one-day cricket. Just Australia the last time they were here," Fletcher said. "It will be a moral victory from the amount of criticism we've taken. "When we came out here, we were heavily criticised that we were inexperienced and that it would be a walkover in the Test series. We came back very well there. "In the one-day series, we took an even bigger mauling before we arrived. How pathetic we were. How we were inexperienced and we were going to get knocked over six-nil. This just shows the character of the side." At the end of last year, England lost a three-Test series against India 1-0 but had held the upper hand for most of the drawn second and third matches. Before that, Australia were beaten 2-1 by India in a gripping Test rubber but bounced back to clinch the one-day series 3-2. Fletcher said England had been forced to depend heavily on their younger players throughout the one-day series against India. England narrowly lost the opening one-dayer in Calcutta by 22 runs but fought back with a thrilling 16-run victory in Cuttack three days later. India pulled ahead 3-1 after a four-wicket triumph in Madras and an eight-wicket mauling in Kanpur but England managed to stay in the series after their nail-biting victory by two runs in New Delhi on Thursday. "I think six matches was too much. We came out here to work on the side and have a few days to practise," Fletcher said. Squads: India - Saurav Ganguly (Captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Dinesh Mongia, Hemang Badani, Mohammad Kaif, Ajay Ratra (wicket keeper), Ajit Agarkar, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Javagal Srinath, Sanjay Bangar, Sarandeep Singh, Zaheer Khan. England - Nasser Hussain (Captain), Marcus Trescothick, Nick Knight, Michael Vaughan, Graham Thorpe, James Foster (wicket keeper), Andrew Flintoff, Jeremy Snape, Ashley Giles, Matthew Hoggard, Craig White, Paul Collingwood, Andy Caddick, Owais Shah, Ben Hollioake, Darren Gough. |
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