Sourav Ganguly laid to rest speculation about his form and fitness with a well-compiled 117 on the second day of the Duleep Trophy cricket match between East Zone and North Zone in Rajkot on Friday.
The 142-ball effort, studded with 18 fours and a six, by the East and erstwhile India captain helped his side take a sizeable 113-run first innings lead over North, who were 106 for three in their second innings at stumps.
East owe the edge they got to Ganguly, who had taken three crucial wickets in North's first innings, restricting them to 178.
The all-round effort of the Bengal batsman, especially his fluent stroke-making, laid to rest the intense speculation over the last few days about his form and fitness, the two factors which saw him losing his place and captaincy in the Indian team.
Ganguly came in when his side was in real trouble, at 54 for three, but showed good temperament in steadying the innings with a mix of aggression and patience.
Resuming this morning at 77 for four, he stitched two useful partnerships with his Bengal teammates Laxmi Ratan Shukla (31) and Deep Dasgupta (57).
He added 125 runs with Shukla (5x4) for the fifth wicket before putting on 72 runs for the sixth with Dasgupta, who slammed 11 fours.
Ganguly, who was batting on 19 overnight, reached his hundred before lunch as East Zone scored 158 runs in the morning session in just 30 overs.
However, Ganguly was dismissed just after lunch off leg spinner Amit Mishra, the thick outside edge being taken by Pankaj Dharmani.
Scorecard
North Zone (1st innings):
R S Ricky c Das b Bose 13
S Dhawan b Bose 1
Sangram Singh c Dasgupta b Paul 8
D Mongia c Das b Paul 4
P Dharmani lbw Rao 35
Yashpal Singh c Dasgupta b Bose 25
Sarandeep Singh lbw Paul 26
A Mishra c Dasgupta b Bose 8
V R Singh c Nadeem b Ganguly 46
Gagandeep Singh lbw Ganguly 3
A Bhandari not out 0
Extras: (b 5, lb 3, nb 1) 9
Total: 178
Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-27, 3-31, 4-49, 5-87, 6-109, 7-129, 8-129, 9-171, 10-178.
Bowling: Paul 20-3-51-3, Bose 14-6-45-4, Ganguly 12.4-5-38-2 (1nb), Rao 8-2-22-1, Nadeem 3-1-14-0.
East Zone (1st innings):
S S Das c Dharmani b Gagandeep Singh 0
Arindam Das c Dharmani b Gagandeep Singh 9
S V Saravanan c Sarandeep Singh b Bhandari 30
R S Gavaskar b Bhandari 15
S C Ganguly c Dharmani b Mishra 117
L R Shukla c Mongia b Mishra 31
D Dasgupta lbw Singh 57
S Nadeem lbw Singh 3
R R Bose not out 5
S S Paul b Singh 2
S S Rao b Singh 0
Extras: (lb 7, nb 15) 22
Total: 291
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-27, 3-54, 4-59, 5-184, 6-256, 7-281, 8-283, 9-291, 10-291.
Bowling: Gagandeep Singh 20-5-42-2, Bhandari 14-4-48-2, Singh 18.5-3-65-4 (5nb), Mishra 16-1-66-2 (10nb), Sarandeep Singh 8-0-63-0.
North Zone (2nd innings):
R S Ricky lbw Paul 56
S Dhawan c Dasgupta b Paul 49
Gagandeep Singh c Saravanan b Nadeem 0
Sangram Singh not out 0.
Extras: (lb 1) 1
Total: (3 wickets, 40.3 overs) 106
To bat: P Dharmani, Yashpal Singh, Sarandeep Singh, A Mishra, VR Singh, D Mongia, A Bhandari.
Fall of wickets: 1-105, 2-106, 3-106.
Bowling: Paul 12.3-2-24-2, Bose 11-3-27-0, Ganguly 1-0-8-0, Rao 7-1-20-0, Nadeem 9-0-26-1.
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