What are the most memorable matches where Tendulkar and Ganguly’s partnership really shined in ODIs?

 India vs Kenya Triangular Series 2001

Even though this was a one sided match the victory was important for India psychologically as Kenya unexpectedly shocked India in their last encounter by defeating them by 70 runs. So both the batsman had a point to prove.

Sachin and Ganguly scored 258 runs in 41.2 overs and each of them scored a century. Ganguly scored 111 of 124 balls while Sachin scored 146 runs of 132 balls. This partnership and a blistering innings from Virendra Sehwag helped India post a total of 351/3 and then restricted Kenya to 165/5 winning the match by 186 runs.

India vs Zimbabwe, Coca Cola Trophy 1998

Like against Kenya India had lost the match shockingly against Zimbabwe. What's worse Sachin got out cheaply against Henry Olonga who then mocked Sachin in his interview calling him an ordinary batsman. Sachin was livid and he became a beast in this match targeting Olonga in particular hitting him all around the park. Zimbabwe had scored 196 runs in 50 overs and Sachin and Ganguly batted brilliantly scoring 197 runs without losing any wicket in just 30 overs. The duo hit 9 sixes in total (6 for Sachin 3 for Ganguly). Sachin Tendulkar scored 124 runs of just 92 balls while Ganguly played a supporting innings of 63 of 90 balls. With this India also won the Coca Cola Champions Trophy.

India vs Srilanka 1998 Nidahas Trophy

In the same year Sachin and Ganguly shared a partnership of 252 runs. What was important about this partnership was the rumours of match fixing by some senior Indian players. To counter that the duo decided to take the game depeer and not loose wickets. The two players batted for 44 overs and due to this partnership India scored 307/6 and won the match by a narrow by 6 runs. As expected the players accused of match fixing got out cheaply but this partnership ensured India had a good enough score on the board. This was the first time any opening pair had a partnership of 250+ runs. Ganguly scored 109 runs while Sachin scored 128 runs.

Do you think Sourav Ganguly was forced for an early retirement?

Before I start this answer,I would like to declare that no one,absolutely no one could force a player of the calibre of Sourav Ganguly to retire.

Even in his interviews later,talking about his retirement,he had said that every sportsperson has to stop at some point,and he felt that it was an ideal time for him to retire.

Now,as a fan,I’d like to answer whether his retirement at the age of 35 was early or not.

Short answer-

In ODIs- NO,his retirement was absolutely perfectly timed.

In tests- YES,his retirement was a tad too early.

Long answer-

Lets talk about ODIs first-

Ganguly took international retirement in 2008,but he was out of favour in ODIs since 2007.

Yes,he scored 1240 runs in 30 ODI innings in 2007,at an average of 44.3. But his S/R was a meagre 73. Infact,barring Ian Bell,no player had a S/R in the 70s,amongst those who finished amongst the top 10 ODI run-getters that year.

The game was revolutionizing,and the minimal S/R in ODIs in the 2007s was atleast 80.

In 2008,he lost his opener’s spot to Gautam Gambhir.

Lets see how Gambhir fared in 2008- 1119 runs in 27 innings,at an average of 47 and a S/R of 91!

So tell me,how could have Dada stayed in the team,when Gambhir was simply destroying the opposition?

This closed doors on Dada,as far as ODIs were concerned,and so his ODI retirement was absolutely justified.

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Now in tests-

Ganguly’s numbers in tests were simply mesmerizing in 2007. 1106 runs in 19 innings,at an average of 62 was simply 😍.

Infact,in 2008,he averaged 36,which was significantly higher than Rahul Dravid’s average of 31.

But criticisms were always flaring against Ganguly,simply for no reason. Some complained about his fitness- but the truth was that,Ganguly was looking extremely fit in 2008,and had improved his running between the wickets to a great extent.

It is really sad and surprising that Ganguly had saved and made the careers of many players during his captaincy,but no one stood by his side during his bad times.

I still strongly feel that Ganguly could have crossed atleast 10k test runs,if he could play till atleast 2012,like Dravid did.

Yes,his test retirement in 2008 was quite early.

Extremely heart-broken to hear about his heart attack. Wising DADA a speedy recovery. 😊

What made Ganguly keep Dhoni in the team after the initial failure of Dhoni?

 Sourav Ganguly came across dhoni while playing the Challenger trophy in 2004 and was impressed with his big hitting in the net.Dhoni scored a hundred hitting Ashish Nehra out of Wankhede Stadium.He was selected in the Indian team soon and made his debut in December 2004.

At that time Ganguly wanted another big-hitter in the team to help the trio of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and himself. Ganguly thought that MS Dhoni could be the match-winner he was looking for.

Ganguly had a tremendous habit to give many young budding players an opportunity to perform and Mahender Singh Dhoni was one of them.Ganguly was known for backing his players when they needed him the most. For example, Virender Sehwag used to bat as a middle-order batsman for India. It was Ganguly, who promoted him and gave him the opportunity to open the innings for the team and later he went on to become the most successful opener India ever had after Sunil Gavaskar.

Ganguly always believed one or two matches cannot define a player.For a player to perform you have to give him fair bit of chances to express himself. The list includes L. Balaji, Gautam Gambhir,Yuvraj singh, MS Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan, Dinesh Karthik and several others. These players have gone on to become champions of the game. Had it not been for Sourav Ganguly, these players might not have become the legends that they are today.

Dhoni failed in his first four matches scoring 0, 12, 7* and 3.It was thenGanguly decided to give Dhoni a chance at No.3 for 3-4 matches.Ganguly left his spot of No.3 in the next match Dhoni was sent up the order to No 3 against Pakistan in Visakhapatnam and proceeds to smash 148 off 123 balls and since then there was no looking back for him.

In the words of Ganguly,"I tried to take the fear of failure away from individuals. Identifying the right talent is important too. And you need to allow them to express themselves. Once you create that atmosphere of taking the fear of failure away from any individual, you allow him more chances to succeed."That was the Ganguly mantra during his tenure as a captain.Ganguly always believed in giving chance to youngsters and he even gave up his batting positions to fit in a player.

So it was not only for Dhoni but it was Ganguly specialty to back up players and give them enough chances to showcase their skills.Ganguly is credited with having nurtured the careers of many young players who played under him, and transforming the Indian team into an aggressive fighting unit.