One of my best knocks: Ganguly

Kanpur: It was the grittiness of Sourav Ganguly that saved the day for India. Standing tall at one end, the charismatic southpaw steered India to a 288-9 against South Africa on the second day of the third Test and thus overtaking the visitors’ first innings total.

Ganguly believes his determined 87 is one of the best innings of his career. He also said that on the crumbling pitch and against a quality attack, India did well to secure a 23-run lead with one wicket in hand.

“I think this is one of my best knocks. In terms of the quality of the knock and the surface on which it was made, it will be in my best top ten. The key was to play positively. There is no point in hanging in there and not scoring. I took my chances. If there was something that I could hit, I went for it,” said Ganguly.

So is he happy with the lead that India has attained?

“We are 20 runs ahead now. And if we get a few with the new ball and our spinners can bowl well we can definitely get them out under-150,” said Ganguly.

“From 152-1, we got them out for 265 on the first day, so that gives us hope,” he added.

When asked about what kind of target will India be happy to chase, Ganguly said: “I don’t know about the target. The lead is not big for the moment. But as I said if we bowl well we can bowl them out for under-150, anything can happen now. So we have to bowl well tomorrow otherwise batting fourth we might be chasing a big total”

However, when asked how would the former India captain rate MS Dhoni’s captaincy in this Test so far, all Ganguly said was: “I just hope we win this Test.”