- 161 runs by Ganguly and Laxman in 2004
The second best Indian batting partnership was witnessed in the Pool C third match of the 2004 edition played against Kenya at The Rose Bowl, Southampton, on 11th September, 2004.
Kenya, led by Steve Tikolo put India into bat. Opening the innings with Saurav Ganguly and Virendra Sehwag, India lost their first wicket in the 10th over with just 30 runs on the board, when Sehwag was dismissed by Thomas Odoyo, after scoring just 17 runs off 27 balls with two fours.
The stylish Hyderabadi batsman, VVS Laxman joined his skipper in the middle and the duo remained un-separated till India reached the score of 191 runs in 38.3 overs.
India’s 50 runs came in 13.5 overs with Ganguly on 30* and Laxman on 3* runs. The 50-run partnership for the second wicket came in 65 deliveries. India’s 100 runs was put in 22.5 overs with Ganguly on 47* and Laman on 24* runs.
Ganguly’s reached his half-ton landmark in 79 balls with 4 hits to the fence.
It took 119 ball for Ganguly and Laxman to register 100 runs for their second-wicket partnership as India’s 150 runs came in 33.3 overs with Ganguly on 77* and Laxman on 44* runs.
The second wicket partnership between Ganguly and Laxman realised 150 runs in 168 balls.
At india’s score of 191 runs, Ganguly departed being ‘done in’ by Martin Suji but not before scoring a valuable 90 runs off 124 balls at a strike rate of 72.58 with the help of 8 fours.
Laxman continued in the company of Yuvraj Singh (9) first and then alongwith Mohammad Kaif (49*) till he was stumped by Kennedy Otieno off the bowling of Steve Tikolo. He contributed 79 runs off 99 balls with 8 fours.
The big second-wicket partnership helped India put up 290 runs for the loss of 4 wickets in 50 overs.
Harbhajan Singh with 3 wickets and Irfan Pathan with 2 wickets were successful in restricting the opposition to 192 runs for the loss 7 wickets in 50 overs and India won the game by 98 runs.
Saurav Ganguly was awarded the Player of the Match.
