Sourav Ganguly, one of the successful captains of the Indian team, celebrates his 48th birthday on Wednesday. Ganguly, known as ‘Dada,’ was the captain of Team India who taught India to win on foreign soil. Born on 8 July 1972 in Behala, Kolkata, Ganguly not only energized his players but also gave the team the courage to win any ground in the world. Ganguly, who specializes in aggressive captaincy, made his debut against the West Indies in 1992.
Live Heed Brings four memorable innings of Sourav Ganguly, which makes ‘Dada’ the most elegant batsman in cricket history .
- The Sahara Cup was a two-sided series of five ODIs between India and Pakistan between 1996 and 98 in Canada. In the second edition of the Sahara Cup (1997), Ganguly led India to a possible 4–1 victory. India won five Man of the Match titles in this series. Four of these came to Captain Ganguly’s account. In the second match of the series, Ganguly gave the best performance of his one-day career and took four wickets for 16 runs in 10 overs.
- We were winning the title by beating arch-rivals Pakistan in the 1998 Independence Cup in Dhaka. India and Pakistan were face-to-face in the final three matches of the tournament, continuing to mark 25 years of Bangladesh’s independence. India won the first match by eight wickets. The second match was named after Pakistan, who defeated India by six wickets in this match, and the champion team was to be decided from the third match. In the decisive battle, Pakistan batted first and scored 314 runs in the revised 48 overs. India had to score 315 runs in 48 overs, and they achieved the target by scoring 316 runs with one ball remaining.
- The Australian team traveled on a winning chariot, winning 15 consecutive matches in Test cricket in 2000–2001. The Kangaroo team’s next tour was to India. In the three-match series, the Australian team, led by Steve Waugh, won the first Test in Mumbai easily and took the lead in the series. It seemed that the Eden Gardens in Kolkata would also win easily. Still, the Eden Gardens of Kolkata India won the match, returning after hunting Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman’s record-breaking partnership. After this, India also won the Chennai Test and won the series 2–1. By winning the Kolkata Test, Ganguly’s team India broke Australia’s record of 16 back-to-back wins.
- Sourav Ganguly, who has won his aggressive captaincy, showed fiercely in Lord’s. In 2002, Team India was on a tour of England, and the final match of the NatWest Trophy was being played at Lord’s. Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif made a memorable performance for India as they chased down a mammoth target of 326 runs. At the same time, Ganguly, who was watching the match in the Lord’s balcony, took off his T-shirt and waved in the air after victory. He did this to teach Andrew Flintoff a lesson. Flintoff took off the T-shirt in the field and waved in the air during the tour of India.
