Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly: Once in a lifetime partnership

Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly

What do the records say?

Without looking at the stats – what do you think? Who among these 2 will be having more runs then the other? Of course you’d say that it’s the maestro, the little master, the record-maker not breaker, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar but a ‘gentle’ NO, it’s the other – the prince of Calcutta, the ‘perfectionist’ of the off side, the born leader – Sourav Ganguly.

Credits to Soham Sarkhel for the stats

Since 1997 to 2007, a decade of India’s finest opening pair, Tendulkar scored 10511 runs, whereas Ganguly scored 500 runs more than Tendulkar and i.e. 11091. I’ve always been a stat-crazy cricket fan, records say the world to me and if this isn’t one of the most unique records out there, which is!

The credit for India’s success in ODIs I believe is largely to be credited to Tendulkar and Ganguly. The left-right combination of these two was very well versed. In fact, it was the consistent changes to the field that the opposition had to make, for this very left-right combination which allowed a sense of ‘calmness’ to their game.

Hence why, Tendulkar and Ganguly successfully hold the highest opening partnership record with 6,362 runs in 129 matches, which includes 20 century partnerships and 22 fifty runs stand.

TendGuly changed the face of Indian cricket

What next – can there be another TendGuly?

The future is what matters now, will the Indian team see the success that it witnessed during the TendGuly era, ever again? Will India produce another gem of an opening pair? As far as my views are concerned, there cannot be another TendGuly. If anything, there can surely be another ‘great’ opening pair for India or for any other country for that matter, but it wouldn’t be same as TendGuly.

No opener can play that cheeky shot over the keeper’s head for 4 and neither can another opener shimmy down the wicket to a left-arm spinners and hit him for a straight six – only TendGuly could do this.

Nowadays, 120-140 runs in the first 20 overs isn’t a sight to be shocked about, hell it’s not even par in T20 cricket, but what about in ODIs? I believe it’s still very much respectable to go at the run rate of 6 in ODIs, even during this era of T20 cricket.

Consider this, in the late 1990s and for the most part of 2000s, until when TendGuly played, on many occasions you’d recall them scoring 120 in the first 20 overs itself, giving the Indian team much needed stability that it required. This is the sole reason why the middle-order that played with these 2 were never in the limelight because they hardly ever gave anyone in the middle-order a chance to relapse the innings, it was a show of TendGuly, a show like no other.

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Edited by Staff Editor