Captain Sourav Ganguly hailed Virender Sehwag after his 95-ball 108 set India on course to beat Pakistan by 87 runs. "He batted once again brilliantly - in these conditions it's outstanding," said Ganguly at a baking Cochin.
"We were 220 after 35 overs and lost a bit at the end but we understand with the heat it gets harder.
"But I still thought 280 was a good total on this wicket because after fielding for three hours to come and bat wouldn't have been easy."
 |  It was a good batting track and if we had held wickets it would not have been a big target |
Ganguly warned against reading too much into the outcome of the game, adding: "Pakistan are a good team. They'll come back hard at us. We just have to keep fighting."
Man of the match Sehwag said he made a conscious decision to see the India innings through, rather than playing in his usual attacking style.
India were 4-2 before Sehwag's 201-run stand with Rahul Dravid.
"When Sachin (Tendulkar) and Sourav got out I decided had to bat until the end," he said.
"The wicket was not that good in the morning - there was a litle extra bounce - so I decided to wait for my shots."
Sehwag added: "In the last five or six innings alone, I've scored more than 600 runs. I'm extremely confident about my game right now. I'm in the form of my life."
Inzamam-ul-Haq admitted Pakistan looked unlikely to reach a target of 282 after losing early wickets.
"After 12 overs with four wickets down that was the main point. Otherwise I think it was a chaseable target," he said.
"The bowlers did very well in the last 20 overs, especially Arshad (Khan) and (Mohammad) Hafeez.
"It was a good batting track and if we had held wickets it would not have been a big target."
MMIX
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 
