On this day: Sourav Ganguly scored Test century on debut; Rahul Dravid faced his first Test delivery
On this day: Sourav Ganguly scored Test century on debut; Rahul Dravid faced his first Test delivery
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On this day, 25 years ago, a star was born as Sourav Ganguly burst onto the scene in style with a century on Test debut. It was also the day when another champion would play his first ball of his Test career as Rahul Dravid debuted in the same match. The Test was India vs England and the venue was the home of cricket — Lord's.
India captain Mohammad Azharuddin put England into bat and riding on Jack Russell's century (124) and Graham Thorpe's 89, England posted 344 in the first innings. Venkatesh Prasad was the star for India with five wickets. And even before he came out to bat, Sourav Ganguly had already made an impact with the ball, claiming two wickets to send back Nasser Hussain and Graeme Hick on Day 2.
In reply, India stuttered at the start as opener Vikram Rathour managed just 15 runs before being dismissed by Dominic Cork, caught in slips. This was when Ganguly walked out to bat, and in his first innings in Test cricket, he impressed immediately as he unfurled a slew of glorious drives, punches and powerful pulls to score 131 off 301 balls, hitting 20 fours. He became the 10th Indian player to score a ton on Test debut.
India, though, kept losing wickets at regular intervals and at 202/5, Dravid walked out to the middle and the two steadied the ship and built a foundation for a healthy total as the pair added 94 crucial runs for the sixth wicket. Ganguly brought up his century via a beautiful cover drive off Cork before being cleaned up by a brilliant yorker from Mullally on 131. Dravid took over from Ganguly after his dismissal and on the next day, he narrowly missed out on his century by just five runs as he was caught behind off Chris Lewis on 95.
India managed a lead of 85 runs thanks to the two debutants. In reply, England scored 278/9 declared in their second innings with Ganguly adding one more wicket to his column as the match ended in a draw. Ganguly went on to score a century at Trent Bridge too. That 1996 England series was the start of two of the most successful careers in cricket. In a career that lasted 12 years, Ganguly scored 18,575 runs in international cricket at an average of 41.46 and scored 38 tons, while Dravid whose career lasted 16 years, finished as the second highest-run getter in Tests for India (fourth highest currently) with 13,288 runs with an average of 52.31 and 36 centuries, overall he scored 24,208 runs at an average of 45.41 and hit 48 tons.
