Mumbai: He was arrogant, blunt and aggressive. The opponents never liked him for he made them feel like puppets. Sourav Ganguly injected a fresh, optimistic energy into Indian cricket and on this day, November 10 (2008), he called it a day in Nagpur against Australia.
Seven years went by but Ganguly is still in the scheme of things, silently watching over the proceedings – as the president of Cricket Association of Bengal, and the very recent post in Board of Control for Cricket in India as the Technical Committee Chief.
Nonetheless, in his last Test, he made a handsome 85 in the first innings. Luck did not favour him in the second when he got out for a duck. But the team won the match by 172 runs.
Ganguly did not want much fireworks and announced his swansong in between a series. India were leading 1-0 in the four-match rubber, with two drawn Tests.
When the southpaw came into the crease, he had old friend Sachin Tendulkar for company who scored a hundred (109). Later, MS Dhoni joined him in the middle and the duo shared a partnership of 119 runs for the sixth wicket.
Ganguly hit eight boundaries and cleared the rope once —dancing down the track in his signature style to off-spinner Jason Krejza — in his sublime innings which took India beyond the 400-run mark. In both the innings, he was dismissed Krejza.
During the final innings, with Australia chasing 382 for an impossible victory, Dhoni asked Ganguly – who took India to the World Cup final after 20 years in 2003 – to lead the side.
According to reports, Ganguly had already switched off from the match after Australia were nine down but Dhoni woke him up.
Under Ganguly, India had beaten the world number one Australian Test team, putting a halt to their winning streak in 2001, which included the historic Test match at Eden Gardens (Kolkata). VVS Laxman (281) and Rahul Dravid (180) bailed India out of danger.
Ganguly scored 7,212 runs in 113 tests with 16 hundreds at an average of 42.17 and 11,363 runs in 311 one-day internationals with 22 centuries.
