Live Score
Cricket Teams
Cricket Players
Happy Birthday Sourav Ganguly: A look at Team India's top five performances under Dada's captaincy
To celebrate Sourav Ganguly's 49th birthday, we look at five of the most defining performances Team India dished out under the leadership of the former India skipper.
Thursday, July 8, 2021 marks the 49th birthday of one of Indian cricket's most loved individuals, Sourav Ganguly. The current president of the BCCI, Ganguly will always be known as the person responsible for ushering India into a new era at the dawn of the new millennium. With the match-fixing scandal rocking Indian cricket, Ganguly took charge of an under-confident Team India and put it on the map.
The fighting spirit and the confidence Ganguly instilled in the team is something whose benefits India is reaping even today. Under Ganguly, the team learnt to fight and give it back to the oppositions. With the emergence of young blood in Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Irfan Pathan, the Indian team set on a path to glory, and for the next five years, would go on and achieve some of the most wonderful results, especially on foreign soil. To celebrate Ganguly's birthday, we look at five of the most defining performances Team India dished out under the leadership of the former India skipper.
1. Winners of the 2002 NatWest Trophy
The 2002 tour of England was India's first in six years and plenty was at stake ahead of the four-Test series. The tour kicked off with a few warm-up games before the tri-series featuring India, England and Sri Lanka took centre stage. India opened the campaign with a stirring win over England as they chased down 272 and won the match by six wickets. In fact, India ransacked opposition en route to the final – they had lost only once to England – but come the summit clash, found themselves out of contention not once, but twice.
England belted 325 batting first, and chasing it down, India got off to a solid start with Ganguly leading the way with an electrifying half-century. However, as was the case with India's batting back in the day, the team slipped from 106/0 to 146/5, before Yuvraj and Mohammad Kaif scripted one of the best comebacks in history. Together, they stitched a 121-run partnership for the sixth wicket and the alliance brought India back as they went on to win the last-over thriller by two wickets, leading to one of the most iconic images in Indian cricket – Ganguly taking off his shirt and swirling it in the air.
2. Joint-winners 2002 Champions Trophy
Two months after the four-Test series between India and England ended in a 1-1 draw, Ganguly's India headed to Sri Lanka to play the ICC Champions Trophy. Two years ago, under Ganguly, the team had come close to winning the title, only to lose to New Zealand in the final. This time around though, Ganguly and India were entering the contest on the back of a confident England tour, and it was evident in the way they played.
Playing the tournament without sponsors, India beat Zimbabwe by 14 runs, England by eight wickets and South Africa by 10 runs in the semis to enter the final. However, the final (or finals should we say) ended up being a damp squib. With Sri Lanka playing out their 50-overs and rain ensuring no further play was possible, the first final was rescheduled to for the reserve day. Shockingly, instead of the match continuing from where it had been left off, the game was given a fresh start. And with no outcome possible once again due to rain, India and Sri Lanka were declared joint-winners.
3. Drawing the 2003/04 Test series in Australia
After the disastrous tour of 1999 where India were blanked 0-3 in the Test series and had lost 13 of the 14 matches in the tri-series, Ganguly led the team Down Under in late 2003. The team showed amazing fortitude to deny the dominant Australian team a Test series win, drawing the 2003/04 Border-Gavaskar Trophy 1-1. Ganguly led from the front and set the tempo in the first Test at the Gabba, scoring a brilliant 141 – considered as one of the best Test innings played in Australia of all time. In the second Test at Adelaide, India registered its maiden Test win in Australia after 22 years. The resurgent Australians roared back to level the series 1-1 at the MCG, before the final Test in Sydney – Steve Waugh's farewell game – ended in a draw.
Also Read | India vs Sri Lanka: Shikhar Dhawan-led Indian team play intra-squad match in Colombo - WATCH
4. Winning ODI and Test series in Pakistan
Not long after their successful tour of Australia, India were in for their biggest assignment as the team travelled to Pakistan for a full-fledged tour to play three Tests and five ODIs. It was India's first cricket tour of Pakistan in 15 years. They had last played there in 1989, and political tensions on either side of the border had restricted bilateral ties. Hence, this was a big deal, but the Indian team under Ganguly came out with flying colours capturing the Test series 2-1 and the ODIs 3-2.
The tour began with a run-fest in Karachi. Almost 700 runs were scored with India (349/7) edging Pakistan (344/8) by five runs in a last-ball thriller. Pakistan came back strong to take the next two matches, putting India in a must-win situation in the fourth ODI. And with India chasing 294 to win, and sliding to 92/4, things appeared bleak, before Rahul Dravid and Kaif stitched a partnership worth an unbeaten 132 runs to take India home. Lahore was the perfect setting for the decider, with this time, India setting Pakistan a target of 294 with VVS Laxman shining with a century. Irfan Pathan inflicted early damage, reducing Pakistan to 24/3 and L Balaji claimed three more to rock the chase and win India the match and the series by 40 runs.
The focus then moved to the Test series, which would go to be known for Sehwag's 309 at Multan, where India took a 1-0 lead and Yuvraj's maiden Test century which came in a losing cause in the second Test. After missing the first two Tests due to an injury, Ganguly returned to lead the team in the final match at Lahore. Dravid top-scored with a career-best 270 as India handsomely won by an innings and 121 runs.
5. World Cup finalists in 2003
The World Cup 2003 was the culmination of three years of hard work for Ganguly and the team. India entered the World Cup with a poor series in New Zealand, where they had lost the seven ODI series 2-5. And the start to their World Cup campaign was no bed of roses either. India scraped past the Netherlands for their first win before suffering a morale-crushing defeat to Australia. But a word of confidence from the then-Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on national television went a long way in boosting the confidence of the players. The Indian team appeared a different unit there on, steamrolling opponents en route to the final.
Zimbabwe and Namibia were brushed aside, before Ashish Nehra's career-best 6/23 derailed England. The high-voltage India-Pakistan fixture saw Sachin Tendulkar play one of ODI cricket's all-time best knocks as India took their World Cup record to 4-0 over their Asian neighbours. In the Super Sixes, India hardly broke a sweat against Kenya or Sri Lanka, and even though New Zealand gave them a fight, Ganguly's men clipped the Kiwi wings and progressed into the semi-final, where they thrashed Kenya by 91 runs. The big final between India and Australia is what everyone had their eyes on. Unfortunately, the law of averages caught up and on the day India needed to give their best, they played poorly to concede 359 runs and lose the final by 125 runs. Ganguly's decision to win the toss and field was met with a lot of scrutiny.
