08 July,2023 09:36 AM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Sourav Ganguly (Pic: AFP)
Sourav Ganguly is one of the most influential players in the history of Indian cricket. He took the Indian cricket team to greater heights both as a player and a skipper. Fondly called âdada', Ganguly played a key role in revolutionising cricket in India. Rahul Dravid even called him the âGod of the offside' for his command on playing shots in that region of the field.
Over the course of his career, he played 113 Tests and 311 ODIs, scoring 7212 and 11363 runs respectively. Unsurprisingly, he created, broke and rewrote several records, some of which still belong to his name.
As the cricket legend celebrates his 51st birthday on Saturday, here is a list of five records/milestones achieved by him.
During his Test debut in 1996, he became only the third batter to score a century on debut at Lord's. Amassing 131 runs off 301 deliveries, he also became the highest debutant Test run-scorer at Lord's - a record that was broken by New Zealand's Devon Conway 25 years later.
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In 1997, he became the only player to win four consecutive Man of the Match awards in ODI. The former India captain achieved this feat in Sahara Cup played between India and Pakistan. He shares this record with Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan.
Ganguly posted his highest ever ODI score of 183 runs in the 1999 World Cup match against Sri Lanka. He and Rahul Dravid put together ODI cricket's first-ever 300-run partnership. They scored 318 runs for the second wicket. Only five pairs have been able to cross the 300-run partnership mark in ODIs.
In 2000, he scored the second highest number of centuries in a calendar year (7) after Sachin Tendulkar who had scored 9 centuries in 1998. David Warner and Rohit Sharma later equalled Ganguly's record.
He is the third highest Indian run-scorer in ODIs. With 11,363 ODI runs, he is only behind Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli. He is the ninth highest ODI run-scorer overall. Sourav Ganguly's career has been decorated with several milestones. The Indian team also flourished under his captaincy to display some of the best performances in the history of cricket.
