Ganguly - Legend

[gs]

Ganguly's innings was a top knock. For me it ranks right there with SRT's knock in Chennai against Pak in '99 or Sunny G's last knock against Pak in Blore on a minefield. Its the mental approach that stood out the most - while most batsmen had demons in their minds and batted gingerly - dada was fluently driving and cutting. One shot that epitomizes his approach was that fierce pull of Makhaya Ntini late in the day - that was some shot! He went for his shots when he was so close to what would have been a memorable hundred. Didn't let the tail enders do it - a befuddling logic that SRT and Laxman have adopted in the recent past. Sadly for him, it didn't come off. But this man's a fighter and hopefully some of his spirit will rub on to the bowlers as well in the 2nd innings. Hats off to Dada!! :hatsoff:

[Predator_05]

I am still waiting for that jackass, theguyinallblue, to show up soon with his usual crapshoot re; Ganguly. Maybe he went into a coma when Drawvid was boring everyone

[theguyinallblue]

come on Preds... i agree..credit where its due.. well played Ganguly..:D just don't disappoint in second innings ..

[Predator_05]

come on Preds... i agree..credit where its due.. well played Ganguly..:D just don't disappoint in second innings ..

:haha: Welcome back yaar.

[Gambit]

so u still think he should retire?

No, not just yet.

[Ram]

Of all batsman, Dravid included, Ganguly looks the most accomplished against Pace bowling. And thats really something because he is traditionally known to have weaknesses against fast bowling + the kind of bowlers he has faced in the last few series ( Lee, Tait, Johnson, Steyn, Morkel, Ntini) will all figure in the list of the fastest bowlers of our times. Remarkable transformation !

[Chandan]

Ganguly breaks into ICC top 20 April 14, 2008 20:48 IST Riding on his Man of the Match performance in Kanpur, Sourav Ganguly [images] leapfrogged seven places to be 17th in the ICC [images] Rankings for Test batsmen which made him the fifth Indian in the top 20 list. In contrast, South African pace spearhead Dale Steyn, after the side's defeat in the third and final Test, conceded his top position in the bowling chart to Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan after the Proteas lost the Test. Ganguly scored 87 and 13 not out in a low-scoring match, which helped him gain seven places on the ladder and the left-hander now sits in 17th place. Interestingly, however, no Indian batsman appears inside the top 10 positions. Sachin Tendulkar [images], Rahul Dravid [images], Virender Sehwag [images] and VVS Laxman are the other Indian batsmen to appear in the top 20. Tendulkar, who missed the last two Tests through injury, has dropped one place to 13th position while Dravid lies in 14th place, gaining one spot. Sehwag, who became India's top ranked player in the 12th position after hitting a swashbuckling 319 in Chennai, drops to 15th while Laxman, who scored 50 in Kanpur, stays in 19th spot. Mahendra Singh Dhoni [images], who captained India in Kanpur, has climbed four places and is now ranked 39th. South Africa captain Graeme Smith [images] has improved his ranking by two places and is now in 12th spot after knocks of 69 and 35 at Green Park. However, Jacques Kallis [images], who surged to the top of batting chart after the series in Pakistan last year in October, continues his slide and is now fifth after dropping three places, while AB de Villiers falls five places to 26th spot. Ashwell Prince, Hashim Amla and Neil McKenzie have held steady in 23rd, 28th and 33rd positions respectively. Steyn, meanwhile, squandered the opportunity to go top of the table on his own, having been level with Muralitharan after the second Test in Ahmedabad, and drops to second place in the ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers. He is, however, well ahead of his nearest rival, Australia's Stuart Clark. Anil Kumble [images], meanwhile, remains India's highest ranked bowler despite dropping one place to seventh after missing the series-decider because of a groin injury, while left-arm fast bowler Zaheer Khan [images], who also missed the series through injury, remains the second highest ranked India bowler in 14th position - a place he shares with Pakistan's Mohammad Asif [images]. Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh [images], who won the player-of-the-series award for his 19 wickets, rose one place to 19th position in a congested lower half of the top 20, where just 13 ratings points separates him from 13th placed Andrew Flintoff [images] of England [images]. Sehwag may have slipped in batting rankings but he has climbed eight places in the bowling list and now sits in 51st position, two places ahead of Ishant Sharma, who took five wickets in his only appearance in the series in Kanpur. The two South Africa bowlers to make upward movements are left-arm spinner Paul Harris and fast bowler Morne Morkel who gained two and nine places respectively to 39th and 56th spots.

[Chandan]

Ganguly breaks into ICC top 20 April 14, 2008 20:48 IST Riding on his Man of the Match performance in Kanpur, Sourav Ganguly [images] leapfrogged seven places to be 17th in the ICC [images] Rankings for Test batsmen which made him the fifth Indian in the top 20 list. In contrast, South African pace spearhead Dale Steyn, after the side's defeat in the third and final Test, conceded his top position in the bowling chart to Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan after the Proteas lost the Test. Ganguly scored 87 and 13 not out in a low-scoring match, which helped him gain seven places on the ladder and the left-hander now sits in 17th place. Interestingly, however, no Indian batsman appears inside the top 10 positions. Sachin Tendulkar [images], Rahul Dravid [images], Virender Sehwag [images] and VVS Laxman are the other Indian batsmen to appear in the top 20. Tendulkar, who missed the last two Tests through injury, has dropped one place to 13th position while Dravid lies in 14th place, gaining one spot. Sehwag, who became India's top ranked player in the 12th position after hitting a swashbuckling 319 in Chennai, drops to 15th while Laxman, who scored 50 in Kanpur, stays in 19th spot. Mahendra Singh Dhoni [images], who captained India in Kanpur, has climbed four places and is now ranked 39th. South Africa captain Graeme Smith [images] has improved his ranking by two places and is now in 12th spot after knocks of 69 and 35 at Green Park. However, Jacques Kallis [images], who surged to the top of batting chart after the series in Pakistan last year in October, continues his slide and is now fifth after dropping three places, while AB de Villiers falls five places to 26th spot. Ashwell Prince, Hashim Amla and Neil McKenzie have held steady in 23rd, 28th and 33rd positions respectively. Steyn, meanwhile, squandered the opportunity to go top of the table on his own, having been level with Muralitharan after the second Test in Ahmedabad, and drops to second place in the ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers. He is, however, well ahead of his nearest rival, Australia's Stuart Clark. Anil Kumble [images], meanwhile, remains India's highest ranked bowler despite dropping one place to seventh after missing the series-decider because of a groin injury, while left-arm fast bowler Zaheer Khan [images], who also missed the series through injury, remains the second highest ranked India bowler in 14th position - a place he shares with Pakistan's Mohammad Asif [images]. Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh [images], who won the player-of-the-series award for his 19 wickets, rose one place to 19th position in a congested lower half of the top 20, where just 13 ratings points separates him from 13th placed Andrew Flintoff [images] of England [images]. Sehwag may have slipped in batting rankings but he has climbed eight places in the bowling list and now sits in 51st position, two places ahead of Ishant Sharma, who took five wickets in his only appearance in the series in Kanpur. The two South Africa bowlers to make upward movements are left-arm spinner Paul Harris and fast bowler Morne Morkel who gained two and nine places respectively to 39th and 56th spots. --------------------------------------------------------------- Ganguly has been terrific in this series when our batsmen struggled, once at Ahmedabad and twice at Kanpur. Ever since he made a come back vs SA in 06-07, he has just had 3 poor tests--Perth, Adelaide and Chennai. This is an amazingly consistent year and a half for Ganguly. He'll be 36 in this this july, and I don't know how long he can continue. But I hope that bats with this skill, tenacity and resilience till he retires!!:thumbs_up:

[suraj]

Great performance by SG- not once but twice in the series he played so well when others were crumbling Hats off to da man!!!!!!

[Feed]

Dada revels in high of performance Two innings against the South Africans in the recent Test series showed the former captain at the top of his game. More... Dada revels in high of performance K Kumaraswamy Mumbai, April 16, 2008 First Published: 00:40 IST(16/4/2008) Last Updated: 00:43 IST(16/4/2008) Sourav Ganguly is a relaxed man these days. That happens when you make headlines for the right reasons. Two innings against the South Africans in the recent Test series showed the former captain at the top of his game. Perhaps, he had a point or two to prove after being omitted from the ODI team. And the knocks in Ahmedabad and Kanpur have also put him in a better frame of mind and form as he gears up to lead the Kolkata team in the inaugural Indian Premier League (IPL). “I think I did very well, but I don’t want to assess myself. It is for others to say,” Ganguly told the Hindustan Times over the phone from Kolkata. It must be an odd feeling for any cricketer to be part of a T20 team but not the traditional limited overs side. And if you are 35-years-old, it gets only accentuated. “Well, from my point of view, I am still looking forward to playing one-day cricket. But T20 is another form of the game and I am keen to make the most of the opportunity,” he said. What is more important in the T20 format, experience or young blood? “Performance on the day matters most. It has got nothing to do with age or such things.” Looking back at the Test series, of the two 87s he made, the one in Kanpur must easily be ranked above; not just because it helped India win and square the three-match series, but because it highlighted his ability on minefield of a track. The track itself raised a debate but Ganguly had a pragmatic view on the issue. “Every team plays to its strength. India’s strength is turning pitches and I think we should play to our strength,” he said. “When we go outside, we play on seaming and bouncy pitches. We have played on pitches with grass left on it. Similarly, leaving the pitch dry doesn’t mean it is under-prepared. “What I mean is, just like one learns to deal with seaming pitches, one has to play on spinning tracks.” Ganguly agreed that the visiting teams now come better prepared for the Indian conditions but only so much. “Certainly they have gotten better. But it also showed that once it started to turn, India had the advantage. Definitely the South Africans are better than what they were. But in Kanpur we had the upper hand,” he said. It is said that that a batsman usually reaches his peak around 30-32. In Ganguly’s case, the blossoming seems to be taking place now. If he averaged 37.58 for 1278 runs from 24 matches between 2002-3 and 2004-5, he has pushed it up to 50.67 with 1571 runs in 18 matches since returning to the squad in December 2006. “When you play 12-13 years, there will definitely be a small patch. No cricketer goes through without a patch,” he said. “You have to keep sorting your technique. But scoring runs is not all about technique, it also depends on mental ability, pacing your innings, etc. Technique is a part of it, but it’s not everything.” You know it when you watch Ganguly bat.

[riya]

Ganguly is a changed man ,he is the biggest fighter i have ever seen in the history of Indian cricket ,even bigger than Anil Kumble . For me he is a legend .

[suraj]

Ganguly is a changed man ' date='he is the biggest fighter i have ever seen in the history of Indian cricket ,even bigger than Anil Kumble . For me he is a legend .[/quote'] You have posted after a long time

[flamy]

I agree. He was getting on my nerves with all those "I wanna be in the ODI team, mummy" news reports, although I cant say how much of them were misquotes. But, he surely shut my trap by playing excellently. True fighter.