Sourav Ganguly was renowned for his aggressive nature on the field. He was the one who infused the much-needed aggression into the Indian team. Once Anil Kumble said that the India team learnt to win on foreign soil under Sourav Ganguly.
Ganguly loved to play competitive cricket and was someone who could challenge and thrash anyone on a given day. He was quite good both as a captain and batsman. Averaged 40 in both the formats (Test and ODI then), the southpaw became the fastest to reach 9000 ODI runs. He also has 132 international wickets to his name.
The Prince of Kolkata waved his t-shirt after taking it off on the balcony of the dressing room at Lord’s Cricket Ground. It was really a daring act to do which came after India clinched a superb victory in the tri-series final to thrash the home team England.
It was one of the sensational finishes in ODI cricket, India came from nowhere to chase down England’s 325 in the NatWest triangular series final at Lord`s in 2002. Later it was known there was a reason behind what skipper Sourav did at Lord’s.
It was earlier that year, Andrew Flintoff took off his t-shirt in Wankhede after making his team win the final ODI and drew the 6-match ODI series 3-3. Flintoff waved his t-shirt to the public and made a round of the stadium.
This gesture was not liked at all by India captain, Sourav Ganguly and the reply to Freddy Flintoff”s behaviour came open in Lord’s after India snatched an epic victory by chasing 326. Sourav Ganguly leads the chase, gave a perfect start along with Virender Sehwag which laid the foundation for chasing down the mammoth score.
An extraordinary match got its perfect climax. The Wankhede and Lord”s were to be treated equally after an eventful revenge. The irony to the fact is that people might have forgotten Flintoff’s celebration but nobody can ever afford to forget Dada’s bashing reply to Flintoff.
1. VIDEO: Ganguly”s reply to Flintoff
2. VIDEO: Ganguly”s opening blitz in the chase of 326
