Sunday, December 09, 2007

Ganguly's double century in Bangalore: All about evolution!

By John Cheeran
Yes, it is tough to swallow one’s pride, tougher still to admit defeat when your well stated position is proved wrong by your pet hate.
Sourav Ganguly has proved his critics, including me, wrong with his well-crafted double century in the third and final Test against Pakistan in Bangalore.
When facts change, I change my opinion. Sir,what do you do?
Ganguly has reinvented himself not just as a batsman but as a man too. Not only he chooses his shots carefully, he pause and prod while he chooses his words too.
His comeback has been splendid and this home series against Pakistan has been significant in terms of the number of runs the Bengal left-hander has scored. In the autumn of his career Ganguly has dug deep to carve out his first Test double century. Earlier Ganguly scored his first Test century in front of the partisan crowd at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Till this series unfolded, I had doubted whether Ganguly has it in to score a century in one-dayers, leave alone in Tests.
None can deny that Ganguly has batted without care, except when he scented the century on Saturday. Ganguly’s and Yuvraj Singh’s tons came when India was gasping for breath, after losing Wasim Jaffer, Gautam Gambhir, Dravid and VVS Laxman, well below the 100 mark on the scoreboard.
But the pitch at the Chinnaswamy Stadium held no terrors after the morning meltdown and a dispirited Pakistan attack (Shoaib Ahtar lying in hospital) will help to put batsmen’s achievements in perspective.
Has the change in Indian captaincy has contributed to Ganguly’s refulgent batting? It has to be noted that Ganguly’s ascent has been marked by the decline in the lofty standards of Rahul Dravid.
A century in front of his friends and family, a double century at the home ground of his biggest rival in life. Ganguly, in his third coming, has surprised himself the most and surpassed a few boundaries in the process.
Certainly, the trip the chairman of selectors Dilip Vengsarkar made to Bangalore has been worth it.

5 comments:

Ganesh Gopalasubramanian said...

The first thing this morning that went on my mind is to check your reaction on Sourav's doubleton. I a not a bengali but is an ardent fan of Ganguly. I have commented before in your posts about Sourav.

I am happy that he has proved many of the critics wrong. I believe that he has another year or two in his career

പ്രവാസി said...

i too was an strong critic of ganguly at the time where he was struggling during his captaincy.
But what a comeback he had after that!! like robert bruce..
A real fighter, in spite of whatever shortcoming he has..

Aveek, The Ace said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Aveek, The Ace said...

Unfortunately I am a bengali for you, but I would like to mention when Kapil Dev was droped it was Bengal and not Haryana who cried foul, when Mahinder Amarnath was droped it was bengal that went to strike and not Punjab...We bengalis had alwasy been mad sport fan but never a regionalism. We are proud of Saurov Ganguly and yes we will always be. I was dissapointed when Dravid was dropped first time in 1997-98. Still I think its not fair to drop him from ODI cos we bengali are the best follower of the sport and cricket and we feel he still has as much to give to cricket as ganguly has given so far...but this time we aren't going to fight for our Dravid cos people like odd has taken Rahul from us...

To you I may sound bit personnel or fanatic but let me tell you one thing today...trust the class, trust the person dont go by report

have you ever realised when ganguly was sacked as captain he the only Indian to score a test century though depleted Zimbabwe but he was the only one.And India did won the series in Zimbabwe...just go and check when did India last won a serie in Zimbabwe...

sorry to sound so rude or personnel but I want to sound this time after hearin all from other side

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