Ganguly steers India Seniors to victory

A splendid allround show by Sourav Ganguly enabled India Seniors beat India B by 30 runs in the second match of the Challenger series, at the M A Chidambaram stadium, in Madras on Tuesday night.

The India captain made up for his 'duck' in the opeing match of the tournament against India A by first rattling up a quickfire 144 off only 106 balls as his team posted a record 392 for 6 off their 50 overs -- the highest ever total in a limited-overs match in India -- and then grabbed two wickets and held the vital catch of Sachin Tendulkar, as India B made a gallant chase of a daunting total.

When Tendulkar went for 77 off 55 deliveries in the 18th over, caught brilliantly by Ganguly at mid-wicket off the bowling of Aashish Nehra, all looked lost for India B as they were precariously placed at 132 for 4. However, a brilliant 152-run partnership between Dinesh Mongia and Robin Singh reignited their hopes of victory till Mongia was out shortly after scoring his hundred for 102 while looking to clear the fence.

Robin Singh was run-out soon after for 64 and with that ended India B's chances of what would have been an unbelievable victory.

Earlier, after electing to bat, Ganguly mauled all the bowlers, except Sachin Tendulkar, who was managed to check the run-rate during his first spell.

The left-hander was especially harsh on left arm spinner Sukhvinder Singh, hitting him for four sixes and two fours to take 32 runs from his first over which also had two no-balls in it.

However, Ganguly was out to the last ball of the over. Going in for a huge shot, he only succeeded in holing out to J P Yadav at long off.

Ganguly faced just 106 balls in his superb knock, which was studded with ten fours and nine sixes, including one off Tendulkar.

Vikram Rathore remained unbeaten with a quickfire 30 (4x6) and Ashish Kapoor was not out on three.

India B gave away 35 extras of which 15 were no balls.

V V S Laxman (36, 5x4), Hemang Badani (70, 4x4 1x6) and Yuvaraj Singh (51, 5x4) were the other major contributors in India Seniors' score.

Apparently stung by the reverse against India A last night, Ganguly and opener Shiv Sundar Das went into the attack right from the word go to give their team an excellent start.

Ganguly got a reprieve on 10, when he was caught by Amay Khurasia off what turned out to be a no ball from Dodda Ganesh, who was impressive in his first spell of four overs for 17 runs.

That spurred Ganguly, who went on to play a gem of an innings.

The opening pair put on 56 runs before Das was bowled by Yadav in the 10th over. Das made 25 including three fours.

Ganguly and Laxman collected runs at a faster pace and were helped by erratic India B bowling. As many as 15 no-balls and nine wides were sent down, with Yadav accounting for four no-balls in a single over.

The second wicket stand was worth 103 runs before Tendulkar got rid of Laxman for 36 runs. But India B's problems were not over as Badani joined Ganguly in heaping misery on the bowlers.

The duo added 87 runs for the third wicket in just 6.2 overs before Ganguly was out. India Seniors continued to plunder runs and Yuvraj Singh, who was having a rather lean patch in recent times, came good with fine 51 runs to make an important contribution.

Scoreboard

India Seniors:
Sourav Ganguly c Yadav b Sukhbinder Singh 142
Shiv Sundar Das b Yadav 25
VVS Laxman b Tendulkar 36
Hemang Badani c Chopra b Ganesh 70
Yuvraj Singh c Tendulkar b Surendra Singh 51
Virender Shewag b Surendra Singh 0
Vikram Rathour not out 30
Aashish Kapoor not out 3
Extras: (lb11, w9, nb15) 35
Total: (6 wickets, 50 overs) 392
Did not bat: Aashish Nehra, Debasish Mohanty, Javagal Srinath.
Fall of wickets: 1-56, 2-159, 3-246, 4-342, 5-353, 6-358.
Bowling:
D Ganesh 8- 0- 60- 1
Surinder Singh 7- 0- 56- 2
J Yadav 5- 0- 32- 1
N Chopra 9- 0- 57- 0
S Tendulkar 9- 0- 52- 1
Robin Singh 3- 0- 35- 0
Mohd. Kaif 3- 0- 29- 0
Sukhbinder Singh 6- 0- 60- 1

India B innings:
Jai P Yadav run out 24
Sachin Tendulkar c Ganguly b Nehra 77
Amay Khurasiya lbw Srinath 1
Sukhbinder Singh c Das b Ganguly 5
D Mongia c Shewag b Nehra 102
Robin Singh run out 64
Mohd. Kaif run out 40
Vijay Dahiya b Ganguly 1
Nikhil Chopra run out 15
D Ganesh c Badani b Mohanty 2
Surendra Singh not out 0
Extras (b8, lb9, w2, nb12) 31
Total (all out, 46.4 overs, 235 mins) 362
Fall of wickets: 1-57, 2-74, 3-90, 4-132, 5-284, 6-302, 7-303, 8-344, 9-362, 10-362.
Bowling
Srinath 10- 0- 63- 1
Mohanty 7.4- 0- 53- 1
Ganguly 8- 0- 81- 2
Nehra 10- 0- 75- 2
Kapoor 8- 0- 53- 0
Shewag 3- 0- 20- 0

Related report
India A beat India Seniors

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