Probably the toughest day of my career: Ganguly (IPL-4)

Pune Warriors' Sourav Ganguly  in Hyderabad.

After remaining unbeaten and carrying the Pune Warriors past the target in his first IPL game, a candid Sourav Ganguly, who was given a rapturous reception by spectators here, called it "probably the toughest day of my career". He said he had not touched a bat for five months, but that didn't deter the 38-year-old from putting in an impressive performance.

Ganguly used all his experience to shepherd the chase after Jessie Ryder played a blazing knock, and kept talking to Manish Pandey as they stitched together a 33-run stand for the second wicket.

The Bengal southpaw took charge of the proceedings thereafter as Robin Uthappa and Yuvraj Singh fell cheaply. Ganguly and Callum Ferguson, who struck three crucial blows in Daniel Christian's over, then ensured a comprehensive win for their team against Deccan Chargers.

"It's probably the toughest day of my career. I haven't picked a cricket bat for five months. I came here with zero confidence," Ganguly said, admitting that he had a lot of work to do to meet expectations. "Fielding will also get better, it's about anticipating what I haven't done for a while," he said.

Warriors coach Geoff Marsh was all praise, saying, "It is great to see Sourav get runs here. He was very nervous going into the match but did well to show that he has the ability to win matches. His love and passion for the game is still very much alive."

On not playing Ganguly in the previous game, Marsh said: "He said he was not ready and hence we had to bench him. He wanted to be mentally and physically ready before taking the field. It was an all-round performance from us. We did well in all departments of the game." Maybe, there's more to come from Ganguly this season.

Source: the times of India.

KKR vs RR: Kolkata Knight Riders won by 8 wickets

Royals batted first and fold up for 81 (the lowest total in IPL 4) in 15.2 overs. 


Balaji, in his first season for KKR after being 'bought over' from Chennai Super Kings, returned remarkable figures of three for 15 in 3 overs, while Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan took two off two balls. Brett Lee did his job as well, so did Iqbal Abdulla who picked up a wicket besides running out Faiz Fazal.

The Knights, handed the luxury of chasing four runs an over, saw a rare first-over dismissal of the prolific and accomplished Jacques Kallis. That, too, off a short ball with the South African opener shaping for a pull off Shaun Tait only to check his shot and top-edge a high catch.

But so meagre was the target, Gambhir and Manvinder Bisla could afford to take their time in the face of some fiery stuff from Tait, who steamed in with four slips and a gully in his opening spell in an obvious effort to rip off the KKR top-order. Bisla succumbed to Warne, but Gambhir (35 not out off 35 balls, 3x4), who is truly looking like a man on a mission, and local boy Manoj Tiwary (30 not out off 26 balls, 4x4, 1x6) stepped on the pedal and raced past the target with 6.1 overs to spare.

No IPL team possible in Kolkata without Dada: Shah Rukh

NEW DELHI: Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly was left red-faced as none of the 10 franchises put his name up in the wish list for the second time after the first round of auctions ended on Sunday.

However, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) owner Shah Rukh Khan soothes balm on the ageing Dada, by commenting that there is no IPL team possible in Kolkata without Sourav Ganguly.

Shah Rukh also said that he will talk to Ganguly and that KKR will try to take him onboard, since he remains unsold in the recently concluded IPL auction.

The real story of the second day of the IPL auction was Ganguly. Speculations were rife throughout the day that one of the franchises might just pick him once the unsold players are put up for the second time.

To everyone's horror, among the 28 players who were re-auctioned at the request of the franchises, Ganguly's name didn't figure.

It was Murali Karthik who turned out to be a gainer as he was bought by Sahara Pune Warriors at $400,000.

There is every reason that the most successful Indian captain will feel insulted as he had prolonged his cricketing career only to play in the IPL. With franchises turning their backs on him, it is certainly one of the most ignominious ends for the Prince of Kolkata.

One of the realistic reason could be his base price of $400,000. By the time the re-auctions of the unsold players were held, it became clear that his old team KKR who had a purse of $425,000 won't bid for him. Ditto for Chennai Super Kings who had almost exhausted their purse with only $385,000 remaining.

Everyone was looking forward to Sahara Pune Warriors - a franchise with whom Ganguly has been linked for quite some time. However with three editions already over, even the new teams know how to get their economics right as most of them found it fit to spend the remaining money on uncapped domestic players who would form the core of the team.

source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

IPL auction, Day 2: Ganguly remains unsold

BANGALORE: Reputations counted for little as former India captain Sourav Ganguly and several other big names found no takers for the fourth edition of the IPL even as unheralded Australian Daniel Christian was bought for an astounding $900,000 (RS 4.14 crore apprx) on the second day of the auction on Sunday.

Veteran Sri Lankan batsman Sanath Jayasuriya also failed to find a buyer on Sunday joining a high-profile list of unsold players which included among others West Indies batting great Brian Lara, Chris Gayle, Mark Boucher and Graeme Swann.

Ganguly's name, in fact, did not even come up in the second round of bidding, the players for which were handpicked by the franchises, prompting angry fans to stage protests against his former team Kolkata Knight Riders in the Bengal capital. read more....

Sachin, MSD's IPL base price 1.84 crore, Sourav for 92 lakh

NEW DELHI: Around 62 Indian cricketers will be up for auction for the fourth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) with Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and the legendary Sachin Tendulkar in the top-bracket of cricketers valued at Rs 1.84 crore.

However, Tendulkar and Dhoni are likely to be retained by their respective franchises -- Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings.

Former India captains Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid along with VVS Laxman are Rs 92 lakh.

The cricketers who will command the highest base price of Rs 1.84 crore are Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh.

The second bracket is that of Rs 1.3 crore where Twenty20 specialist Yusuf Pathan finds a place alongside speedster Zaheer Khan and the talented Suresh Raina.

Similarly stand-in ODI captain Gautam Gambhir, who didn't have a great IPL 2 and 3, has been priced in the third bracket at Rs 92 lakh along with the likes of Virat Kohli, Irfan Pathan, Robin Uthappa, Ashish Nehra, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar and veterans such as Ganguly, Kumble, Dravid and Laxman.

The fourth bracket is of Rs 46 lakh which consists of domestic cricketers and the fringe India players who have represented the country since 2005.

Bengal players Wriddhiman Saha, Manoj Tiwary, Ashok Dinda along with Saurashtra's Cheteshwar Pujara are some of the players in the fourth bracket.

The fifth and final bracket is of Rs 23 lakh where there are India discards such as Manpreet Gony, Sudeep Tyagi, Sridharan Sriram to name a few.

The five brackets of base price: 1st: Rs 1.84 crore; 2nd: Rs 1.3 crore; 3rd: Rs 92 lakh; 4th: Rs 46 lakh; 5th bracket: Rs 23 lakh

List of Players up for auction

Andhra: Yelakka Venugopal Rao; Assam: Sridharan Sriram Baroda: Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Ambati Rayudu, Munaf Patel;

Bengal: Sourav Ganguly, Manoj Tiwary, Wriddhiman Saha, Ashok Dinda;

Delhi: Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, Ashish Nehra, Ishant Sharma

Gujarat: Parthiv Patel, Siddharth Trivedi Haryana: Joginder Sharma, Amit Mishra

Hyderabad: VVS Laxman, T Suman, Pragyan Ojha

Jharkhand: Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Saurabh Tiwary

Karnataka: Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Manish Pandey, Abhimanyu Mithun, R Vinay Kumar, Robin Uthappa

Kerala: S Sreesanth

Mumbai: Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan, Wasim Jaffer, Abhishek Raut, Rohit Sharma, Abhishek Nayar, Ramesh Powar

Madhya Pradesh: Naman Ojha

Punjab: Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Manpreet Gony, VRV Singh

Railways: Murali Kartik Rajasthan: Pankaj Singh

Saurahstra: Ravindra Jadeja, Cheteshwar Pujara

Tamil Nadu: Dinesh Karthik, S Badrinath, R Sathish, R Ashwin, M Vijay, L Balaji

Uttar Pradesh: Mohammed Kaif, Suresh Raina, Praveen Kumar, Sudeep Tyagi, Piyush Chawla, Rudra Pratap Singh

Vidarbha: Umesh Yadav