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NEWS India-South Africa Series 2006>India missed experienced players in middle order: Sehwag 30th Nov 2006 14.12 IST By Agencies India's stand-in captain Virender Shewag said Rahul Dravid 's absence and the poor form of Sachin Tendulkar put enormous pressure on the rest of the young and inexperienced batsmen in the fourth one-dayer in Port Elizabeth against South Africa. Sehwag also felt India missed having experienced batsmen in the middle order as South Africa had also started off badly but could recover because they had tried and tested players in their ranks.
"Tendulkar's failure also puts pressure. When a big player fails, the rest of the batters come under pressure." "We are not opening well and are losing far too many wickets in the first 10-15 overs. Youngsters thus are confronted with a huge task. South Africa are also starting badly but they are able to recover because they have experienced cricketers like Jacques Kallis and Herschelle Gibbs in the middle. That is not the case with us." But Sehwag begged fans back home to be patient and give them some more time to come to terms with the tough conditions in South Africa. "I want the fans to keep trust in us. Things cannot change in a day and it will take time. We will improve," he said. "Even though we have been here for nearly a fortnight, we have hardly practised. Our sessions were spoilt in Johannesburg and Durban. Hopefully before the last ODI, the Twenty20 match would afford us valuable practice," Sehwag said. The teams are slated to play a Twenty20 game at Potchefstroom on December 1 followed by the last ODI on December 3 in Centurion. Sehwag defended the selection of Dinesh Kaarthick ahead of Dinesh Mongia , who was chosen as a specialist batsman for the series. "Kaarthick is batting well in the nets and we feel if we give him more opportunities, we could have a new player in the middle order. Dinesh Mongia is not playing because we decided before the start of the series that we would try to play as far as possible five bowlers in every match. It means we can only play five batsmen and in that scenario, we are not able to make space for Mongia." Sehwag gave an insight into his thinking when he said he preferred having a spinner bowl in the death overs than the medium-pacers. "Spinners like Kumble are difficult to hit in slog overs and that's why I gave only four overs to faster bowlers in the death overs." Sehwag saw positives in the way Mahendra Dhoni , Kaarthick and Irfan Pathan shaped up in the middle and felt this was a base which could produce dividends in the near future. "We only need to spend more time in the middle. I am sure things would be alright soon." Also View In-Depth Coverage: India-South Africa Series 2006 Team Page: India Team Page: South Africa | LIVE CRICKET COVERAGE NEWS ~ Gilchrist has no plans to retire after World Cup ~ Ganguly's new batting approach may cost him sixer record ~ India 'squash the Orange' in World Cup warm-up game ~ Symonds gets a new hairdo for World Cup ~ Dhoni readies himself for stand-up act at World Cup (more in NEWS) FACE-TO-FACE ~ 500-mark a possibility in World Cup: Hayden ~ Minnows add charm to World Cup: Dravid (more in FACE-TO-FACE) COLUMNS ~ Will Sri Lanka replicate 1996 World Cup success? (more in COLUMNS) OFF-THE-FIELD ~ Ganguly again the darling of corporate world ~ Ganguly roped in as brand ambassador of Puma (more in OFF-THE-FIELD) PLAYERS Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble (more PLAYERS) TEAMS India, South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Australia, West Indies, Zimbabwe, England, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Kenya, Holland | 
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