We lost it with the toss, says Wright

It’s a pity that the team today failed to live up to Wright’s expectations but as he has through the last five years, coach John W...

It’s a pity that the team today failed to live up to Wright’s expectations but as he has through the last five years, coach John Wright stood by his team even in defeat. ‘‘The toss just took it away from us. Of all the matches today’s toss was the most crucial’’, he told The Indian Express.

Minutes after winding up his final assignment with the Indian team, Wright sounded bullish on his boys’ future, backing them to make an impact in the 2007 World Cup.

Though defeat turned his farewell match sour, Wright believed the team was in the midst of a slump and would quickly snap out of it before the next season kicked off.

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‘‘It’s a chance for the selectors to study the reasons for the slump in form. (But) I am still very confident that the team is playing quite well’’, he said.

The fourth game was the turning point of the series, he said. ‘‘You put 316 on the board and don’t convert that into a win. If we had taken that opportunity it could have been a completely different outcome.’’

Dwelling on India’s performance under him, Wright said ‘‘In terms of Test matches they are really up there. We only lost to Australia at home but we fought hard. The curator did us in at Nagpur and at Chennai, had it not rained, we’d have been in for an exciting series.’’