Another milestone for Sourav Ganguly

Ganguly set to scale the 300-ODI mark

Mathew Varghese

September 1, 2007

The ongoing ODI series has seen several milestones for Sourav Ganguly. He went past 11,000 ODI runs at Edgbaston, and in the fifth game, at Headingley, he will become the fourth Indian to have played 300 ODIs.

Ganguly is India's second-highest run-getter in ODIs, after Sachin Tendulkar. He ranks fourth overall in the all-time run-scoring charts, with Sanath Jayasuriya and Inzamam-ul-Haq filling the slots between him and Tendulkar.

To add to his batting, Ganguly has also picked up 97 wickets with his gentle seamers, including two five-fors, against Pakistan at Toronto in 1997, and at Kanpur against Zimbabwe in 2000. He might not be the swiftest in the field, but a safe pair of hands has helped Ganguly pouch 100 catches so far.

Ganguly has had maximum success when playing at home, but his record at neutral and overseas venues is pretty good as well.

Eighteen of Ganguly's 22 centuries have resulted in victories for India. However, it has been a prolonged century-drought for him since the semi-final of the 2003 World Cup against Kenya. Ganguly's average is an impressive 56.31 in matches won, which drops down to 30.07 in lost causes.

Ganguly has also led India in 146 one-day internationals, which is the second-highest for India, after Mohammad Azharuddin's 173. However, his performance as a batsman has slipped when he has led the team - he averages 38.66 as captain, and 44.14 when not in charge of the side.

Tendulkar and Ganguly, India's top two run-getters, also gel well in tandem: 7597 runs have been scored when both have been at the crease together. The next-best in the list is Marvan Atapattu and Jayasuriya, who have combined to score 5462 runs. The Indian duo are also the best opening pair - in terms of numbers of runs scored - in ODIs, with an aggregate of 5979.

Although Ganguly and Tendulkar are a successful opening pair in ODIs, both batsmen average higher when not taking first strike. The averages see a significant rise when they are at the non-striker's end for the first ball of the innings, although Ganguly has played far more innings at No. 1 than at No. 2, unlike Tendulkar.

Ganguly has scored plenty of runs as an opener but has had even more success at No.3, averaging more than 52. Rahul Dravid might want to use that option in the current series against England, with Dinesh Karthik struggling at one-down so far.

Ganguly also seems to step up on the big occasion, averaging over 50 in World Cup, ICC Champions Trophy and Asia Cup matches. With his highest of 183 at Taunton, Ganguly surpassed Kapil Dev's 175 to hold the record for the highest ODI score in an innings by an Indian. Although the record has been broken since by Tendulkar and equalled by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, it remains the highest for an Indian at the World Cup. Ganguly also tops the batting averages (minimum of 10 innings) for the ICC Champions Trophy.

In final matches of a series or tournament, Ganguly scores at 37.03, lower than his overall average of 41.42. However, he averages 80.50 in the seven matches that India have won. Ganguly and Tendulkar also possess an impressive record when it comes to partnerships in finals.

Mathew Varghese is an editorial assistant with Cricinfo.com

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