*India skipper Sourav Ganguly finally had his fill of batting practise, and he made it count at Cardiff on Friday.
With Glamorgan in dire straits (following on, after being all out for 358 against Kent’s first innings score of 568), Ganguly walked in with the score three down for five runs, and played with control.
Initially concentrating on working the ball around, he absorbed the pressure of wickets tumbling at the other end (4-23, 5-34, 6-78) and once set, took charge.
He moved into the 90s with a four, then to 97 with a six off the ‘offie’ James Tredwell.
At that score, he lost two partners in the space of a single over. Darren Thomas, the right arm seamer and left arm bat, went for 17 (32 balls) after a partnership of exactly 100 for the 7th wicket; David Harrison, the right arm seamer, followed in the same over, both wickets going to South African seamer Andrew Hall.
With the score 180/9, Ganguly shepherded tailender Andrew Davies through a Martin Saggers over, farmed the bowling of Hall to take a single and keep strike, and off Saggers’ next over, moved to his century – which he immediately celebrated with another four.
His 100 had come off exactly 100 balls, with 10 fours and three sixes. The pacing was vintage Ganguly – his first 30 runs contained two hits to the fence, the next seventy had seven fours and three sixes.
Ganguly and last-man Andrew Davies (35 off 42 not out) figured in a whirlwind 80-run 10th wicket stand.
Ganguly was last to go, on 142 off 124, with 15 fours and five sixes. His last 42 runs had come off just 25 balls, with five fours and a six.
Glamorgan, at one point facing an innings defeat, closed on 260 all out, a lead of 50 runs.
Kent has ten wickets to get them, the result is a foregone conclusion, but Ganguly’s innings lifted it from being the walkover it threatened to be at one point.
Earlier in the morning, Ganguly added eight runs to his overnight 61 not out before being fourth out with the team score on 190; he had featured in a 111-run 4th wicket stand with David Hemp after Glamorgan had been reduced to 79/3.
:kaboom: ganguly