The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Another milestone for Ganguly

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Monday, Sep 03, 2007
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Another milestone for Ganguly

Special Correspondent

Leeds: Sourav Ganguly, on Sunday, became the fourth Indian cricketer, after Sachin Tendulkar, Mohammad Azharuddin and Rahul Dravid, to figure in 300 One Day Internationals.

The 35-year-old left-hander had 11,020 runs at 41.42 — he went past the 11,000-runlandmark at Edgbston during this series — in 299 matches with 22 hundreds before the fifth NatWest ODI. His strike-rate of 73.63 is creditable. The ‘Dada’ has also been a more than useful mediumpacer with 97 ODI wickets at 37.64.

Former Sri Lankan batsman and the match referee for this series, Roshan Mahanama, told The Hindu “Ganguly’s aggression is the striking feature of his cricket. He can cream the ball through the off-side. You do not make s o many runs and play so many matches if you are not really good. I have played against him and found him to be a good competitor. It (300 matches) is a wonderful feat. Not long ago, Chaminda Vaas achieved this for Sri Lanka.”

Former Indian wicket-keeper batsman Farokh Engineer, who watched the game here on Sunday, said, “He (Ganguly) is such a sweet timer of the ball.”

Among the 35-year-old Ganguly’s centuries, his 100 against Australia in Melbourne and his 141 at the expense of the Pakistani attack in Adelaide, both during the triangular series in 1999, stand out for the quality of the attacks against whom the runs were made and the quality of his strokeplay.

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