SG vs West Indies

After the good Test come-back, a great ODI return. That, in a nutshell, is former India captain Sourav Ganguly's performance at Nagpur against West Indies in the first limited over cricket match.

The stylish left hander had played his last ODI in the tri-series final against New Zealand in Zimbabwe in September 2005.

Ganguly, making a return to the one-day side after 15 months, scored 98 and got run out trying to steal a run. However, it could have been his 23rd ODI century and his first in 52 matches. His last hundred (111*) came in 2002-03 World Cup Semifinal against Kenya at Durban .

I am happy that my prediction on Ganguly was proved wrong. But I may incur the wrath of die hard Sourav fans, if I say that the selectors' decision to sit him out of international matches came as a blessing in disguise for the Bengal batsman. I am sure if he did not have the spat with coach Greg Chappell, he would not have toiled in the nets and the gym as the way he did.

But the strange thing is, just after one 98 in the first game, cricket 'experts' in Bengali television channels commented that not only he will be in the World Cup squad and will also be made captain.

I heard one of them said:"In the last world cup he led the team to final, and in this one he will lead the team to win the final". This could have come from a blind fan but not from an expert.

Moreover, Sourav is playing well and let him play that way. The burden of
captaincy may again force him to lose the recovered touch. In his Test comeback, Ganguly emerged the team's highest run-scorer in the three-Test series against South Africa. He scored 214 runs in six innings at an average of 42.80 and was third in the overall run chart for the series, which the hosts won 2-1.