Abhishek

On the eve of October 7th, Sourav Ganguly announced the Indo-Australia series to be the last series of his career. For some it was retirement of another legend but for me it is an end of an era. Dada, as we all fondly refer to him, will be missed by one and all alike and we wish him best of luck for his future.

After more than a decade long career Dada called it a day but his career has been no less than a fairy tale especially last two years. In 1989 a player named Sourav Chandidas Ganguly made his debut and was subsequently dropped from the side because he allegedly refused to carry drinks to the ground. And for most of the people it seemed end of his career.

And then came 1996 tour of England when Sourav made a comeback into the national side and the reason for his selection was said to be his close ties with Jagmohan Dalmiya. And most of the people including me thought Sourav did not deserve to be in the side. But in his very first match of the tour he proved everyone wrong by scoring a century and Lords witnessed birth of another Indian batting icon……..

Though Sourav could not equal Mohammed Azharuddin’s feat of scoring three centuries in first three Test matches of his career, I still can’t forget how much I cursed him when he got out on 66 playing at Feroz Shah Kotla. An excellent player of spin, Sourav tried to play a sweep shot off Brad Hogg, on his debut, and was caught at slip. But what followed was a success story for every one to remember.

Ganguly made his mark on both ODIs and Test matches but as his career progressed he became a better player of ODIs than Tests. Along came the Sahara Cup 1997, the second bilateral series between India and Pakistan in Toronto, Canada. Ganguly who was known for his batting only, not only scored runs in that series but also picked up 16 wickets and became Man of the Series taking everyone by surprise.

As they say no one is perfect in this world and Ganguly was no exception. Though Ganguly was called the God on the off side of the wickets the short pitched balls proved to be a bane for him. I still remember how Aquib Javed and other Pakistani bowlers took advantage of it in three ODIs series in Pakistan. Soon every side stated to target short pitched stuff and one could not foresee Sourav’s success story to continue for long as far as international matches were concerned.

But we were yet to witness what metal this man was made of. With balls above the shoulder not considered as legitimate deliveries in ODIs then Ganguly made heaps of runs in ODIs and with Sachin battling with back injury post 1998 and Rahul Dravid still finding his foothold in the international arena Ganguly soon became the mainstay of Indian batting line up. Dada’s fortune in ODIs actually changed in Titan Cup 1996 when he was asked to open with Sachin Tendulkar against South Africa and though India ended up being on the losing side in that match however the match saw probably the best ODI opening pair batting for the first time. Sourav-Sachin proved nightmare for almost every team in the world cricket succeeding like no other pair.

One just can’t forget their 252 run opening stand against Sri Lanka when both of them scored centuries and then got out of consecutive deliveries showing how inseparable they are.

As a player Sourav played probably the best innings of his career against Pakistan in Dhaka in the third of the best of three finals. Chasing a daunting task of 315 in India got off to flyer thanks to Sachin and Sourav pair though Sachin was scalped by Afridi, Sourav continued his fireworks and scored 124 in the match, India successfully chased the 315 target set by Pakistan and became then world record holder of chasing the highest target in ODI history.

Sourav then played his first cricket World Cup in England in the year 1999. Though, India could not go past the super-six stage in the tournament more because of India’s loss to Zimbabwe in the league stage the tournament was remembered by Indian cricket fans for Dravid’s batting, who became the highest run getter in the tournament and his partnership of 318 runs with Sourav Ganguly against Sri Lanka.

The match saw both the batsmen taking Sri Lankan bowling apart and Sourav went on to score his highest in the ODIs 183 not out. It was the highest individual score of an Indian in the tournament surpassing Kapil Dev’s 175 not out against Zimbabwe in 1983 World Cup. The 183 by Ganguly still remains highest individual score by any Indian in the world cup.