Under-fire India captain seeks stroke of luck by AFP

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Player:	SC Ganguly
Event:	Pakistan in India 2004/05

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DateLine: 7th April 2005

 

Sourav Ganguly was counting on luck to help him emerge from a terrible loss of form with the bat that has threatened to cut short the career of India's most successful cricket captain.

 

Critics and former players alike are baying for Ganguly's blood after runs dried up for the stylish left-hand batsman during the ongoing contests against Pakistan.

 

He managed just 48 runs in five Test innings against the arch-rivals, was then bowled for a first-ball duck in the opening one-day international at Cochin and again found his stumps shattered in the second match here on Tuesday after making nine.

 

Ganguly conceded the small target of 55, which will make him only the third batsman in the world after compatriot Sachin Tendulkar and Inzamam-ul Haq of Pakistan to score 10,000 one-day runs, seemed light years away at the moment.

 

"It looks a long way off," he said after leading India to a 2-0 lead in the six-match series.

 

"I need to get some runs. That is what I am trying to do for the last one month. I am concentrating hard on it and I am practicing.

 

"I am hitting the ball well. Unfortunately I am not spending enough time at the wicket.

 

"I think I need a bit of luck. A bit of luck here and there where I am able to get some 30-40 runs. Then I can carry on from there."

 

Ganguly, who boasts of an Indian record of 19 Test wins as captain, has not scored a Test century since a brilliant 144 against Australia in Brisbane in November 2003.

 

A one-day hundred has eluded him since the World Cup semi-final against Kenya in Durban, South Africa in March the same year.

 

Ganguly's best scores against major teams after that have been 77 against Pakistan in the Rawalpindi Test in April last year and 90 in a one-dayer against England in September.

 

More than the lack of runs, it is the manner in which Ganguly has been dismissed that is worrying critics and fans alike.

 

His dislike for short-pitched deliveries, which he has fended awkwardly to close-in fielders, is well known. But in the last three outings against Pakistan, Ganguly has failed to spot the turning ball or the seaming delivery and found himself clean-bowled.

 

"It is not a pleasing sight to see the skipper go that way," former Test captain Bishan Bedi said on television. "There are better batsmen in India at the moment who are not in the team."

 

But Ganguly remained unfazed by calls for him to step down.

 

"Criticism is going to happen because I have not scored runs for the last five to six innings," he said.

 

"People are going to criticise but these things remind you that you have been good enough in the past."

 

For the record, Ganguly has scored 4,949 career runs in 82 Tests, but only 927 runs in the last 20 matches at an average of 33.10

 

In 269 one-dayers, he has amassed 9,945 runs.

 

Ganguly has four more one-dayers against Pakistan to salvage his reputation as one of most fluent strikers of the ball in the game.

 

The third match of the current series will be played in the eastern city of Jamshedpur on Saturday.

(Article: Copyright © 2005 AFP)