'They batted like England bowlers were school boys' - Sunil Gavaskar recalls iconic Tendulkar-Ganguly partnership

Over the years, Indian cricket fans have seen several great batting pairs. However, the duo of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly remains one of the most dangerous Indian batting pairs. The two batters were involved in several match-winning partnerships for their country and completely bamboozled prominent bowling line-ups on their best days.

Talking about their numbers as a pair, Tendulkar and Ganguly amassed over 8200 runs in partnerships in ODIs, with 26 centuries and 29 fifties. In Test matches, the duo scored a total of 4173 runs with 12 century stands with the highest partnership of 281. Their second-highest partnership of 249 came against England in a Test match in Headingley in 2002.

‘They were toying with the England bowling line-up’ – Sunil Gavaskar

Recalling that iconic partnership, veteran cricketer Sunil Gavaskar said that it was a joy to watch the two legends toying with England’s bowling line-up.

“To be able to see that Indian batting duo of Tendulkar and Ganguly toy with the England bowling as if they were schoolboys, was fun to watch. When the declaration was being thought of, Sachin and Sourav were batting as if it was a one-day game,” former India captain Sunil Gavaskar said on the docu-series ‘Architects in White’ streaming on SONY LIV.

On the back of excellent hundreds from Sachin (193 runs), Ganguly (128 runs) and Rahul Dravid (148 runs), the visitors went on to pile 628 runs on the board before declaring their innings. None of the English bowlers were spared as Matthew Hoggard, Alex Tudor, Ashley Giles, and Andrew Caddick all conceded at least 100 runs.

The excellent batting was then backed by some splendid bowling from the Indian side as the spinners, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, wreaked havoc on the Three Lions’ batting line-up to take the Indian side to a comfortable win of an innings and 46 runs. As a result, the visitors India managed to level the series 1-1.