Mumbai, Nov 25: Ravi Rampaul shattered the hopes of countless cricket fans when he got the wicket of Sachin Tendulkar just six runs short of what would have been the Little Master’s hundredth international ton. The pacer spoke to the media about Tendulkar’s wicket and the plans around it.
Excerpts from the press conference:
On the plan for the day for Sachin Tendulkar
This morning the coach and I were chatting a little bit while warming up about how we are going to bowl at him. Basically [the plan] was to get close to the wicket and just angle the ball away from him. So said, so done. He nicked it and it was a good feeling.
On the ball that dismissed Tendulkar
It bounced a lot. He was batting out of his crease trying to get the ball a little fuller. So I realised that and pulled back my length a little bit. The ball before actually bounced as well. So it was just the right ball at the right time.
On the spectators’ response to him after Tendulkar’s wicket
When I walked back to the boundary it wasn’t all that nice. That’s how cricket goes. I know a lot of fans are heartbroken. We can’t just let him get out there and live freely. We have our job to do such as he has his job to do.
On whether Fidel Edwards and he were competing for the big wicket
We had our plans to unsettle him a little bit. We are fast bowlers and our bouncers are our armoury and we tried to use them as much as possible. We tried to attack him a little more and tried to make him uncomfortable.
On West Indies’ position in the match
We are taking it step by step. We are two down right now and coming tomorrow we hope to have a good start and work it from there and see how it goes. The wicket is still good for batting, [but there’s] not much assistance for the bowlers. We will how it shapes up tomorrow and decide from there.
On R Ashwin
Ashwin himself really came out there and assessed the wicket and batted to the conditions and [Virat] Kohli did that as well. When the partnership was building we stuck to our plans, tried to restrict them from [scoring] runs and hoped that they would give away their hand. It’s basically that the wicket is not such that you can blast away anybody or spin out anyone. So you just have to stick to your basics and team plans.
On Virat Kohli playing the anchor towards the end
I don’t think we relaxed. Because it was a good wicket, when a partnership was building we went back to our plans to bowl line and length and keep it as consistent as s possible. He was batting with the lower order and we hoped he would give us one of those chances. Kohli did play well and gave us a chance and we took that chance. It’s part of cricket.
