Gambhir disappointed as rain denies India possible victory

Brisbane, Feb 5 (UNI) After scoring his third ODI century during the second match of the Commonwealth Bank tri-series against Sri Lanka here today, Gautam Gambhir rued that rain denied Team India possible victories in both their matches.

''We had a good chance of beating Australia in the first game and today also we thought we had a very good chance. With a couple of early wickets we would have really been in the game. It's a bit unfortunate because we feel we could have won both and taken full points,'' Gambhir lamented.

Gambhir, who shared an unbeaten fifth wicket stand of 184 runs with skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, said India's game plan in the tri-series match against Sri Lanka was to play safe till the 40th over and then accelerate in the slog overs.

''We had a gameplan to keep wickets till the 40th over and then go for some quick runs. We knew if we had a big partnership, we could accelerate towards the end,'' he said.

The duo put up a superb partnership and impressed with their running between the wickets.

''Dhoni batted very well and we concentrated on hard running as it is a big ground,'' Gambhir said. ''We can get two or three runs by good running on these big grounds and it was important to rotate strike.It is not like in India, where we have small grounds and quick outfield,'' he added.

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