It was yet another day when i woke up and started doing my routine works and heard the news of Sourav Ganguly being dropped from the squad of Irani Trophy and the news was not a suprise as it had been only a question of when rather than why.Looking back the memory lane it had been a tremendous journey with him taking Indian cricket along numerous famous victories and incidents.Some of the most remarkable deeds of him that comes to my mind ......
*The aura he brought into the team and the courage with which he took the captaincy when the future of the indian team was at stake after azharudhin's match fixing episode and from that point becoming the most suceesful test captain of the country.
*The famous chase in Dhaka against Pakistan which came to be known as the Kanetkar match after his four that sealed victory for india in tha last over...that was the begiinning of the Sourav era
*That remarkable 183 against Srilanka in the 99 world cup in a do-or-die match producing the first ever 300 run partnership in ODI history..Oh the roars on that afternoon still echoes somewhere
*The Lords episode where he removed his shirt and waived it in style paying back what Flintoff did to us in the Natwest final victory thanks to the gem of a partnership between Yuvraj-Kaif.
*The comeback after him being dropped from the squad after the chappel controversy proving thousands of critics wrong(not me,of course)..
Every innings he played were marked by his trademark shots of the cut,the big hit over mid on,the lofted cover drive which he hits coming down the track..He was a treat to watch at the top of his game.Now the time has come to bed good bye to one of the greatest cricketers the game has ever seen.Sourav,believe me the bottom of your heart what is good for Indian cricket,who other than you knows better..may be it is the time for you move gracefully like the way you played....
Some records that speaks for Sourav's greatness Courtesy:Wikipedia
Tests
Captained India in a record 49 Test matches[58]
Led India to a record 21 Test wins[59]
His test average has never been less than 40.[60]
ODIs
Hold the record of most 200+ ODI partnerships (6 times) along with Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting.
Holds the record, shared with Sachin Tendulkar, for most 1st wicket ODI partnerships of 175+ runs (7 times).
Holds the record, shared with Mahendra Singh Dhoni, for the second highest score by an Indian cricketer in an ODI — 183, against Sri Lanka in 1999.
Held the record, shared with Sachin Tendulkar, for the highest first wicket partnership for India in an ODI match, 258, against Kenya in 2001. This record was bettered by Sri Lankan opening pair of Jayasuriya and Tharanga in 2006 at Headingley.
Was involved in the first 300 run ODI partnership with Rahul Dravid.
Sixth on the all time list with 31 man of the match awards.
He is also the only player to win 4 consecutive man of the match awards in ODIs.
India's most successful ODI captain.
First Indian to score an ODI century against Australia in Australia.
Highest ODI runs scorer in the world (in a calendar year) in 1997,1999,2000.
Third in the list of hitting maximum number of sixes in ODIs.
Second in the list of highest number of centuries in a single calendar year ever. 7 centuries in 2000.
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