All about Ganguly and a pedestrian attack

By John Cheeran
What should we make of the events that unfolded at the Eden Gardens during the Ranji Trophy match between Bengal (please note, it is not West Bengal... the Bengali Ummah, I suppose) and Tamil Nadu?
Before the match started, Times of India's Mumbai edition had carried a preview.
The report was by a Bengali reporter. Nothing wrong in it.
But the report ended with a line "But it remains to be seen that whether Ganguly will be motivated enough to score against a pedestrian Tamil Nadu attack."
As a reader I don't want the reporter to take an anticipatory bail in case Ganguly fails with the bat. That does not befit Times of India.
Later events show that Ganguly stayed motivated to score against a pedestrian Tamil Nadu attack. May be it was not prudent on the part of the ToI reporter to brand Tamil Nadu attack as pedestrian.
Now that takes the sheen out of Ganguly's two half-centuries in the match. Ganguly top scored for Bengal in both first (59) and second innings (88).
Oh my gosh! Impressive efforts, Sharad Pawar should say.
But then the point is that the same match witnessed much better batting efforts. Hemang Badani top scored for Tamil Nadu in the first innings with 67 and in the second innings with an unbeaten 157. Badani laid the foundation for the Tamil Nadu victory.
Haven't the selectors erred in leaving out Badani, a man in fine touch, from theIndian squad that is in Pakistan now?
It was just not Badani who stole the thunder from Ganguly. Tamil Nadu opener S Sriram made 96 in the second innings while their No.7 Vasudevadas scored 62. Tamil Nadu's No.9 M.R. Srinivas remained not out on 41.
I have listed these batsmen's scores so that one can take stock of Ganguly's valiant efforts against a ‘pedestrian’ attack in its proper context.
The point is this. Ganguly may be the best player in Bengal but there are far better players in Rest of India.
This is the critical point. But I'm sure that Bengal has not become mature enough to accept this cricketing truth.