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Ponting hits out at negative India

13/10/2008

Australia captain Ricky Ponting has lashed out at India's tactics following the drawn first Test on Monday.

Ponting claimed that India had a negative approach after they finished on 177-4 having been set an unlikely winning target of 299.

"We were the only ones trying to take the game forward," said Ponting.

"We played aggressive cricket. I am not surprised by the way they played, the Indian team play a lot of drawn games. We dominated this Test match."

Ponting said he expected the final day to be "a really good contest".

"We got some extra runs we thought might have needed. We gave it our best shot with the ball but we just didn't create enough opportunities," he added.

"We could not win it at the end, but it was a pretty good start to the series for us."

India's Zaheer Khan, who was man-of-the-match, defended his side's tactics saying that the Australia's failure to win would mean they'd be under more pressure in the rest of the series.

"They know they can't take our 20 wickets. They couldn't get me and Bhajji (Harbhajan Singh) out, what else do you want? They are under pressure, we know that," he said.

"On a fifth day wicket their spinners couldn't do us any harm. That tells everyone what their spin attack is all about.

"Even their pacers, they didn't look like getting a wicket, especially on the fifth day on a wicket like this."