Time for Saurav Ganguli to take some rest?
Sunit Khanna
Apr. 9, 2005

Saurav Ganuli mentioned that Pakistan outplayed India. But on the contrary it is India that has some unnecessary overheads that is players just out of form. Induction of Dhoni made India win the last ODI. If you look at the scorecard you will see there are players in the Indian squad who are just out of form.

In ODI every batsman and every run counts. In that scenario Saurav Ganguli is now a burden for the team. May be he should be rested for a dew ODIs and new comers like Dhoni given some chance.

India’s miserable 213 all out could have been worse. Saurav Ganguli did a great job for the team and the Cricket Control Board must take into some hard look and bring in new comers to make sure future of Indian cricket is harvested.

According to Reuters, Pakistan bowler Rana Naved grabbed a career-best six-wicket haul and opener Salman Butt struck a century as Pakistan crushed India by 106 runs in the third one-day international on Saturday.

Butt slammed 10 fours in his 116-ball 101, sharing in a 145-run stand for the second wicket with Shoaib Malik (75) for the visitors, who now trail 2-1 in the six-match series.

Pakistan piled up 319 for nine after electing to bat on a flat wicket and then bowled India out for 213 in 41.4 overs, Naved ending with six for 27.

Naved struck a vital blow in the second over, having in-form opener Virender Sehwag caught for two as he cut straight to Afridi at point.

Mohammad Sami then dismissed Tendulkar for six, edging to second slip, before Naved ran through the Indian line-up, sending back Saurav Ganguly (4), Mahendra Dhoni (28 off 24 balls) and Yuvraj Singh (1) in quick succession to make it 66 for five.

A fighting 64 by Irfan Pathan, for his maiden one-day half-century, was India's only consolation.

Butt got off to a flying start, driving seamer Pathan through the covers in the first over, and opening partner Shahid Afridi punished left-arm paceman Ashish Nehra for two boundaries through the off-side.

Afridi (17) looked in good touch before edging Nehra to slip, where Rahul Dravid held a head-high catch to his left.

Butt and Malik relied on ones and twos to raise their half-centuries before cutting loose after the 20th over, Malik pulling off-spinner Harbhajan Singh over mid-wicket for four and Butt driving Pathan for two cover boundaries.

Malik lofted occasional spinners Tendulkar and Sehwag over the on side for sixes but was caught while trying for a repeat.

Butt brought up his second one-day century with a single to long off, kissing the pitch in celebration.

The 20-year-old was run out soon after, stranded in mid-pitch after a misunderstanding with Yousuf Youhana, who blazed a 31-ball 43.

India, though, never recovered from their poor start. Ganguly's poor form continued as he was caught in the slips while playing away from his body.

The team captain averaged 9.6 in the drawn three-test series and has scores of nought, nine and four in the one-dayers.

Dhoni, who scored a match-winning 148 in the second one-dayer, hit out in front of his home crowd but was caught slogging at Naved while Rahul Dravid (28) and Mohammad Kaif (32) could not capitalise on good starts.

The other matches will be played in Ahmedabad (April 12), Kanpur (April 15) and New Delhi (April 17).

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