Cricinfo - Blogs - Match Vox - Ganguly leads India's fightback - 3rd Test: South Africa v India at Cape Town

Went to bed hoping and even praying :) that Dravid wouldn't send Sehwag to open as some folks (Ravi Shastri including) were suggesting. Just got up and lo, Sehwag opens and fails (and I am not surprised) ... didn't he and coach learn from previous two tests and the first innings of this third test that Sehwag has problem playing the new ball, and that he can be destructive when it gets a bit older as he showed in the first innings. Haven't read what other elite fans opined but I am sure a lot of you felt
the same way. Why change plans if it worked .....

Yes...
Now we can see a diffrent Ganguly after that gap. He is fully focossed on game rather than politics.
Thats a welcome change. There is no doubt, He is an excellant cricketer.. as both captain and Player.
At the end of the day.. India need good players.
It is good have Ganguly back to form. Let us wish the others too come back to the form to perform well in the world cup.

Good luck Ganguly.

Dravid's form related to world cup win ??? that must be the joke of the century...

Defensive play, be it from the best playmakers or strokeplayers, may win a match but never a tournament.

Its guys like Sachin, Ganguly, Sehwag, Yuvraj and Dhoni whose form is vital for ODI triumphs. Dravid and his kind are for the tests or come good in ODI (read win matches) only when backed with their bowlers and a fellow batsmen.

Dravid may score the highest runs and have the best average in future ODI. But he can never be expected to win a world cup based on his form.

As a matter of fact, would love to have Ganguly leading the side. Dravids was beginner's luck. Look how his captaincy is moving to.

Australia became no:1 analysing the SWOT of other teams. Not taking gambles like Irfan Pathan shuffled and spoiled his career.

See this test. He was fielding Munaf at Point (where the best fielder in the team is ) between his overs. And dont say thats great captaincy.

Tendulkar returns from injuries and asked to field at short leg. Gosh... If he had taken a blow on his operated elbow!!!

I am of the opinion that the jury is or at the very least should still out for Ganguly. While he has played pretty well in the tests he has not exactly set the stage alight has he. The only reason he is India's top run scorer in this series is because India's top order has been brittle. It is also to be noted that he has been coming pretty low in the batting order and has not had to play the seaming ball against which he has always been suspect. The runs he has currently scored just shows how much cricket is a mind game and he ofcourse is a master at that.

One day might be a slightly diffrent cup of tea. For the world cup I think we require more utility cricketers people who can bat a bit bowl a bit and field like Old Jonty. He could very well turn out to be the difference he can bat and bowl.

Dada has always been a wonderfull one day player and with Shewag's form being what it is we could gamble with the Sachin Ganguly opening act for this world cup.

Pity someone has commented that India will surely win. I doubt it. Yes maybe if the test is 7 days maybe India can win. They are batting at a snail's pace where they scored just six runs in the last five overs. If Ganguly was still there, he would have at least increase the scoring rate. What are Dravid and Tendulkar waiting for? Even Dinesh Karthik will score more freely and faster. This is really boring, same old story, tigers on paper, rats on the field. Look at Hayden and others of Australian team.

Ganguly sould be able to carry his good form into one day game. Ganguly is considered by many (read yesterday's article by Dileep Premachandran - "technique or rather the lack of it" says he) as technically inferior to most in the Indian team. It may be half true as Ganguly is a better player of spin than the other two left-handers who are likely to replace him - Raina and Yuvraj. Many like, Alan Border, considers him as the best player of spin bowling of his time. Considering that Ganguly has apparently got rid of his arrogant attitude, - which accroding to many led to his downfall, - he may well be an asset in the one day team.

man! dada is rocking!! Kudos to Ganguly
he has a lot to offer to the indian ODI team..
In this series, he has always come to the centre at a time when the team was struggling, reeling under pressure. Despite pressure on him, Ganguly has emerged as a top performer in the series.
People speak a lot on being "out-of-form", "technical imperfections"; but, this man here- Ganguly, has shown that its all in your will to fight.. fight hard..
This performance in SA, speaks for himself. If the selection commitee selects a squad based on performance, Ganguly is bound to be in the ODI team.
If he in the squad, it do a world of good this indian team..

Please dont let Gangully come back in one-dayers, he always plays politically (chapell absorbed him rightly, me my friends also have been absorbing him for couple of years) which is not a problem in Test match, but not in One-dayers. Saw the same in first test match first inning. he went from 35 runs to 50 runs, wheras tail enders were able to add some odd 40-50 runs. he was suppose to tell them to stay there and he should have slogged. But then you should know he ALWAYS PLAYS POLITICALLY, so he must have wanted to be unbeaten. and thats what happened. And he nevers runs that hard extra run if he is in danger end, not to speak about his fielding. To end he his a politicain cricketer. Thanks to CHAPPELL for being BOLD with him.

India is taking a dangerous approach here. Ganguly's dismissal came at the wrong time. Being over cautious never worked for India. Dravid and Tendulkar are in such a terribly defensive mode right now that they are missing on some really loose balls to score. I don't see an Indian win right now unless SA bats really bad in the second innings (like they did at Wanderers in the first innings).

The million dollar question is NOT whether Ganguly's confidence will spill over to the shorter version or not; the question is whether or not the ex captain will fit into the present coach's process driven matrix. With Rainas, Kaifs and Yuvis as measuring parameters, Ganguly as a fields-man will shatter all metrology machines. However it is to be seen if Kaif and Raina hit pay dirt in domestic cricket. If they do, all Ganguly can extract out of his confidence is runs for Bengal. However, if Kaifs and Rainas fail to regain their mastery over the willow, we will surely be more than treated with, as Sajjan said, 1997 circa masterpieces. May be best player win.

it just shows doesn't it that half the game is in the mind. Eventhough ganguly's comeback has not been like botham's it has gritty. Veeru has never exhibited any footwork whatsoever even when he was scoring the 300 against Pakistan it has always been stand and deliver, a hand and eye player. i fear that he might have run his course and i once thought that he woudl be the first to score 200 in a one day

With Ganguly in the side down the order, In this series India's lower middle order looked strong, which is not the case in most tournaments. He will be better player in the one dayers given the fielders in the close corden will be far less compared to that in the tests n the number of bouncers aimed at DADA's ribs will be lesser - means DADA in the present form can make bigger scores than what he made in tests! Considering the form the other players are in Ganguly will be first choice batsman in any form of cricket today for India, not Sachin n definitely not Dravid.

Agreed Sreedhar totally!! Ravi has a habbit of shooting his mouth off conveniently forgetting his own playing days! Saurav played a bad shot again and SRT appears to be nearing the end. RD was a bit loose and VVS is just a bad runner. SRT just got a really bad one, why is Asad Rauf in the elite league??!! Have lost count of the bad decisions to date, mostly against us!

What fightback????Everything is over...On the most crucial day of their careers the oldies have given it away..It saddens me that the great little man cannot save India when it needs him the most...A Tendulkar who doesn't want to dominate is as pedestrain as any of the mortals..why is he not learning from all this?.

I would disagree with you that Tendulkar struggled today. He did not want to take risk as it appeared the strategy was to open out after Tea. Hence he was padding Harris away when he might hv played different strokes after tea. But i dont agree with the tactic at all as it just takes one stupid moment (in this case from the umpire) for you to lose your chance. He should have made hay while Harris was bowling non-wicket taking balls (i.e. outside leg stump) and made to change his line. I dont understand what mental battles he is battling. In the recent past, (as it has been said time and again) Tendulkar is not battling the opposition but his own mind.
I pray to god that it changes for the better. That is all we can hope as fans cant we?

Dada is just replying all critics and showing them why he is termed as Best captain of India ever produced. It needs mental strength and intelligence apart from good batting technique.He may not be as good and sound batsman as Dravid but we must thing that a major General should not necessarily be a good soldier. Dravid like a excellent soldier but to become a Major General, the capotain of India, it needs intelligence on game and superb mental strength. At the same time, having an average of 41 in test cricket, Dada can easily be considered a good batsman, though may not be as good as Dravid. But at the same time we must not forget that he can also bowl and has got lot of wickets in one day and test both. So, considering all, can we not believe that he is much more valuable cricketer in Indian team than any other players in the team.? So, still, it was a ironic surprise to me How dare some people leaving him behind for almost one year.

I dont understand why India have batted so defensively throughout the series. Ganguly made his runs in good time. yes he was fortunate on occasions but whilst he was there he did damage. Tendulkar again laboured and in the end got a bad decision for only 14. I now believe he is well and truely over the hill. Still a good batsman but no longer a great one.

Has anybody stopped to consider that Sachin might be carrying an injury?Throughout his innings he appeared very uncomfortable using his right hand.His straight drives which were so brilliantly executed in the 1st innings were absent as he couldn't use his bottom hand comfortably.It didn't help that Paul Harris was bowling down the leg side throughout leaving no option other than playing the sweep shot which needs quite a lot of movement of the bottom hand.Asad Rauf just added to his tally of the Indians wicket this series.How come India gets such an umpire(who continues to make decisions against the Indians) in every other series.
As for Ganguly,its very pleasant to see him applying himself.He is still struggling against the short deliveries but he is ready to stay there.This is what the difference isfrom the Ganguly who was kicked out of the team(quite justifiably)He was not applying himslef then.The axe gave him a lot to think about and see how irresponsibly he had been playing.Even today he got out to a horribly irresponsible shot after playing and missing 1-2 times on similar deliveries.I hope he regains his composure again.

Why is it that if a player plays defensively for 3 hours gets 15 odd runs (Laxman, Tendulkar) and is then out playing a defensive shot they are praised them but if another player attacks gets quick runs and then is out in the 40's certain fans criticise them? Ganguly is trying to win the game.
Even in the first innings Tendulkar took an age to get his runs and then got out when he should have been looking to push on. The same thing happened in the last test. Dont blame the umpire, the decisions go both ways. Have you forgotten Rauf not giving Dhoni in the second innings last match when he was plump LBW?

Spot on Aadhar. The SKY boys kept on talking about SRT's potential problems in the lower back or hamstring given how he could not play either down the wicket or his trademark paddle. I am aghast at Rauf's sheer incompetence, the man is clearly not world class. The question is what are Indians doing?? Why is this not taken up to Mahanama, make him earn his crust for once!! Re WC 2007, I am afraid, the signs are ominous for us. However if Veeru regains his composure and Irfan his swing at goodish speed, then we may still have some hope. SRT must stop kidding himself, if he is unfit, first rest and then go play COunty circuit if he still wants to play a few years. He does not have the skills of a SMG, and should do what is natural to him, i.e. play his shots. Whenever he has done that upon his return, he has brielfy threatened to run away with the game. A word re Karthick, the more I see of him, the more I like this kid. I remember him from the junior days and always thought that he could be an Indian Alec Stewart with his back foot game. He could be better than Dhoni down under?

Ganguly deserves credit for his performances on this tour. Though he has not set the world alight, he has certainly been the most consistent of the Indian batsmen, not that there has been much competition. The more worrying sign is what the return of Ganguly (a player with obvious flaws who regularly fails to do the basics) signifies for the depth of Indian cricket. The fact that Yuvraj, Kaif, Gambhir, Raina and others have been unable to stake a claim to the spot left vacant by Ganguly a year ago indicates that ther is not much to get excited about when it comes to the future of Indian cricket.

Tendulkar was clearl injured today, affecting his ability to get on the front foot (both literally and figuratively). I think the real problem with him though is that, after 18 years of test cricket, he needs some fresh stimulation...a new challenge. I think the Karthik experiment (ie opening the innings) is, at best, a short term solution, at worst a fleuk. The time has come for Tendulkar to move to the very top of the order, at attempt to take charge of an innings in the same fashion as Matthew Hayden has in the recent past. Karthik, Jaffer and Gambhir can battle it out for the other opener's slot, though it may only be a matter of time before the promising Robin Uthappa gets the call-up. Sehwag should drop down to four, with Laxman and, eventually, Yuvraj to follow. Dhoni stays as keeper, with Karthik breathing down his neck! No room for Ganguly. His current vein of 'form' will be short lived. He is a player with inherent flaws that can no longer stand up to the scrutiny of test cricket. The smattering of runs he has made in this series is only delaying the inevitable. It amazes me how Indian cricket refuses to let go of the past.

It seems that ganguly's technique is bad, but still he has the highest runs. Every other batsman is better than ganguly, but still in 6 complete innings they fail to score more than ganguly. If tendulkar fails, he is injured, if dravid fails, its the bad decision by the umpire, if Sehwag fails, then he is young and should be given another 50 chances (I do not see anyone commenting about his technique), if Laxman fails, it was a great ball. and so on.. I would prefer to have a batsman whose technique is bad but scores runs to a batsman who is technically right but does not score runs. We have to remember that after Kapil Dev, it was Ganguly who led India to the World Cup finals. And Greg Chappel is still experimenting after 1.5 months. Can he guarantee that India will win the world cup? Only then can he/dravid better Ganguly/Wright's performance. And we have to remember that the game is cricket. Doing military drills, etc etc by greg chappel has done nothing.. (but maybe injured Yuvraj Singh even when not playing). If ganguly is bad and not included in the ODI matches, then no one else should be selected too, as there is no player in the Indian team now who can guarantee that he will win a match for India. And apart from Sachin, Ganguly has got the highest number of Man of the Match awards, than any other Indian cricketer (past or present). And we should not forget that players like Zaheer Khan,Sehwag, Dhoni,Yuvraj,Kaif, Irfan Pathan,Karthik, etc all came to play cricket during Ganguly's tenure as captain and flourished then, and not under Chappel and Dravid.

Irrespective of the outcome of the match, I think that Karthik might've just prolonged Sachin's career!! We've seen enough of Sacin's whims and fancies! Nobody...not even the great Sachin Tendulkar...can be greater than the game. In this game, he took India from a position of strength to a position of absolute pitiable and agonizing defeatism. And this wasn't the first time he's played such an atrocious innings according to his own whims. Though I can't remember clearly, I think he's done the same thing to such innocuous bowlers like Chanderpaul, Giles, etc...bowling into rough. And he's just so adamant about being nagative against that line. And most impostantly, that also just rubs off on your partner too. Dravis hadn't padded to even a single delivery in the company of Sourav! And as I'd guessed, the No.4 problem, of Sourav walking in ahead of Sachin was a blessing in disguise. Sachin in at at 6/2, with his current thinking and attitude, would have seen India collapse for far lesser. I'd hoped and prayed for Sachin to leave a final unquestionable mark of his greatnes, with a classic and riveting century...or a half. But instead he turned out to be the prime hatchet in SA coming back into the game. So much for dreaming and praying of Sachin playing match-winning knocks. What a waste of such great talent! That's the only pity of it all.

Can we do to Sehwag what the indian team selectors did with Ganguly, only to see the fighting and better Ganguly. Sehwag really needs to go and play not one or two or three but all the Ranji Trophy games to come back to the team. Ganguly shown the fighting and the attitude that we need to perform well and lot other players should take that from him. He should definitely come to the one day side to boost confidence.