Captains across all the teams in different era, have played significant innings that have changed the course of the game or a series. Steve Waugh has played so many that it is hard to recollect which one was his best. Graeme Smith, the man who made a habit to scoring match winning 4th innings hundreds as just another day in the office. India too have had their captains play some quality innings against all odds. The one innings that I still remember is the one that certainly ranks among the top 3 captain’s knock by an Indian skipper. It is none other than the 144 Saurav Ganguly scored against Australia at Brisbane in 2004. This is the story of that one innings of a much maligned captain and much criticised batsman played against the best side of his time. A captain’s knock to remember.
Ganguly was a suspect against fast bowling
Saurav Ganguly as we all know wasn’t that excellent player of fast bowling. Especially, on wickets that has a little bit of help for that kind. He was adequate but will always struggle if the conditions are in favour of the fast bowlers. His records in Australia, West Indies, New Zealand, South Africa and England proves this point quite well. He always has this tendency of playing well away from the body and thereby nick to the keeper or the slips. He will wait for the short ball and as a result became susceptible against the ball angling away from him. This showed a mind that was confused whether to go forward or to go back. Such was his prowess against fast bowling.
Hence, Ganguly was under tremendous pressure before the Australian series in 2003. To make matters worse, the Indian team of that year hadn’t won that many games outside India. So the pressure to perform was even greater. Ganguly being the captain and somewhat of a suspect against fast bowling and that too in Australia when they were at their best, the series and the personal performance can only go one way. A way that Ganguly would not have liked.
Shane Warne and chin music
Shane Warne, the great Australian leg spinner, did not have kind words for Ganguly. He wanted Ganguly to be ready to face chin music. In other words meant short and fast bowling onto his head. It was meant to intimidate Ganguly and thereby defeat him mentally even before he had stepped onto the field.
It was under such a scenario, Ganguly took a trip to Sydney. He worked with the legendary Australian player, Greg Chappell. He learned the technique to play fast bowling on bouncy pitches from Chappell. It will be an understatement to say that Ganguly improved his backfoot play after his stint with Chappell. To all the Ganguly supporters, it was clear that he wanted to leave a mark on the series with his batting. It showed real intent on his part.
Ganguly in his auto-biography,
“The Australians, as a part of their well-planned strategy, always targeted the rival captain,” writes Ganguly. “But I had made up my mind even before fastening the seat belts on the flight that I was going to attack before they realised what had hit them.”
And then the series started
Australia have this habit of exposing the visiting teams to the bounce and pace of Brisbane Gabba. The big strong Australian bowlers will pound the visiting batsmen and by the time the series moves on to the next test, the visiting team will be mentally defeated and thereby effectively losing the series. This time it wasn’t any different. The Indians were expected to roll the red carpet for the Australians. The first couple of days were mostly washed out because of rain but Australia still managed a pretty good score. A semblance of fight was already seen on the 3rd day when the Indian bowlers took the last 7 wickets for an addition of only 50 runs with Zaheer Khan leading the way.
And Ganguly came, saw and conquered
However, the start of the Indian innings wasn’t anything to write about. They were struggling at 62-3 with Dravid, Tendulkar & Sehwag back in the pavilion. In walked Ganguly. The captain and someone who was under great deal of stress. Not only to rescue the team from trouble but to prove a point to the whole world in general and to the Australians in particular. Prove he did.
Such was the brilliance of that innings. Never once during the course of 196 deliveries did he take a step back. He attacked right from the beginning.
He was convincing against the likes of Gillespie, Bracken and Bichel. MacGill was treated with contempt. Sure he was beaten. Sure the Australians had him in trouble in a couple of occasions. There were quite a few streaky shots that went over the slips but none of these deter Ganguly from aggressive batting. He even brought out the pull, a shot which Ganguly was never renowned for, into play. The authority that he showcased during the course of 144 was something few captains display when they tour Australia. He was a man on a mission. He decided to play aggressive cricket and he did not fail to deceive.
Those who had the privilege to witness the innings were all lucky to see a batsman who overcame his own fear and low confidence to come out and play an innings that will certainly belong to one of those innings that changed the course of a game and the series.
In his autobiography, Out Of My Comfort Zone, Waugh wrote: “After Brisbane, we also had to recognise that this wasn’t the usual soft-underbelly Indian touring squad, but rather a hardened force forged by Sourav Ganguly, their feisty leader.”
Conclusion
It will be a mere understatement to say that Ganguly’s innings instilled the much needed confidence on the rest of the batsmen to play a brand of cricket that was seldom seen from the Indian batsmen in Australia. He certainly inspired Dravid, Sehwag, Laxman and towards the very end, Tendulkar, to play the way they did. Indian cricket from that point onwards really believed that if they can draw a series against one of the greatest teams of any era, they can certainly win more games away from the sub-continent.