DRAVID AND GANGULY POST
ALL-TIME RECORD PARTNERSHIP
ALL-TIME RECORD PARTNERSHIP
County Ground, Taunton • 26 May 1999
Strangely, while others were
finding it difficult to score a century, Indian batsmen were reeling off
hundreds after hundreds in this tournament. Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid
had just flayed the Kenyan bowling, and set up a plethora of records. If that
was an unprecedented high in the World Cup, Dravid and Sourav Ganguly reached
the pinnacle in terms of partnerships in all One-day Internationals, when India
met holders Sri Lanka.
After Sadagopan Ramesh was
dismissed in the first over, Ganguly and Dravid sparkled. Dravid, the
accomplished technician, surprisingly set the early pace with a flurry of
brilliant strokes. Ganguly, the smooth timer, picked up the cue later and
launched a blistering attack like which had rarely been seen before.
They were both revelations.
Ganguly was hitherto known for his silken strokes on the off-side. He was
awkward, if not ungainly, while playing the ball - almost following it around -
on the on-side. This was particularly marked when pace bowlers dug the ball
into his ribs. There were no such inelegant jabs in this match. Once he cut
loose, his big-hitting - straight and over long-on - took one’s breath away.
One never knew the ‘Prince of Kolkata’ could hit so long and hard. Again it was
brilliant timing.
Dravid had always been known as a
copybook batsman in the Sunil Gavaskar-Sanjay Manjrekar tradition. He would
often get bogged down, unable to rotate the strike. Here, on this true wicket
at Taunton, Dravid went on an uncharacteristic stroke-playing binge from the
very start. As he played his wristy shots to perfection, with the willow doing
his bidding every time, he looked almost like a table tennis maestro relishing
his forehand and backhand chops that had the opponent running hither and
thither.
In terms of pure statistics it was
mind-boggling. Dravid became the second batsman in the World Cup to carve
back-to-back centuries, having hit an unbeaten 104 against Kenya in the
previous match. Mark Waugh had achieved the feat in 1996. With Ganguly also
scoring a hundred, this was the third instance of two batsmen hitting tons in
the same World Cup innings after Desmond Haynes and Vivian Richards in 1987,
and Dravid and Tendulkar three days earlier.
As Dravid also kept wickets in the
match, his 145 was highest by a wicketkeeper in the World Cup, overtaking David
Houghton’s 142 in 1987. Ganguly’s 183 was India’s highest in One-day
Internationals, surpassing Kapil Dev’s 175 in the 1983 World Cup. It was
second-best in the World Cup after Gary Kirsten’s 188 not out in 1996, and
fourth in all One-day Internationals behind Saeed Anwar’s 194 and Vivian
Richards’ 189.
Ganguly hit 7 sixes, equalling
Vivian Richards’ World Cup record set in 1987 and Sachin Tendulkar’s Indian
record in all One-day Internationals, which he smashed against Australia in
1998. Coupled with his 17 fours, Ganguly had now hit the maximum runs in
boundaries in a World Cup knock. "Once I realised the pitch was good for
playing shots, I just did not think of curbing myself", said a delighted
Ganguly. Ricky Ponting broke this mark, blasting 8 sixes in the 2003 final.
Ganguly and Dravid added 318, the
first triple-century partnership in One-day Internationals. The previous best
World Cup stand was 237 between Dravid and Tendulkar in their last match. The
highest-ever stand in One-day Internationals was 275 between Mohammad
Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja against Zimbabwe in 1998. Sourav Ganguly and Rahul
Dravid surpassed these and re-wrote the record books with their exhilarating
batting.
(Author Indra Vikram
Singh can be contacted on email singh_iv@hotmail.com).
The Big Book of World Cup Cricket 1975-2011
ISBN 978-81-901668-4-3
Distributed in India by Variety Book Depot, Connaught
Place, New Delhi, Phones + 91 11 23417175, 23412567
Available in leading bookshops, and online on several
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