2003 World Cup; Finishes runners up under Ganguly’s captaincy
The 2003 World Cup run was a fruitful campaign for India. India finished up as runner up in the competition. India was captained by none other than Sourav Ganguly. When the match fixing allegation hit deep into Indian cricket, one man put up his fists up and volunteered to be Indian captain. The name goes by Sourav Ganguly. He was able to put a good team heading into the world cup. The team under his leadership had developed a winning mentality, which had been lacking in the former Indian teams. The pros of a Sourav Ganguly led team is not in the ability to win matches. It is in the ability to make comebacks and fight till the very last breath. India was crushed to it’s lowest total in world cup history. However, this team came back from the dead to beat Namibia, England and Pakistan. Ganguly kept on believing in his players and they started paying his belief back with performances. Sachin Tendulkar who was the highest run getter got the runs in all these matches. Another notable performance was 6/23 by Ashish Nehra. It is the second best ODI spell by an Indian in World Cups even today. It is also the 6th best in entire world cup history. Glenn Mcgrath’s 7/15 remains the best.
Best Bowling Figures by an Indian Bowler in ODI cricket
| Player | Best Bowling Figure |
| Stuart Binny | 6/4 |
| Anil Kumble | 6/12 |
| Ashish Nehra | 6/23 |
| Murali Kartik | 6/27 |
| Ajith Agarkar | 6/42 |
Sourav Ganguly’s moment of the tournament came against Kenya in the next round. They were in superb form and were one of the dark horses. India were struggling at 24/3. However, Captain Sourav Ganguly came to the rescue and scored his 21st ODI hundred and helped India home. India met Kenya in the semi-finals yet again. Sourav Ganguly displayed yet another innings of aggression and enthralling stroke play to endure India’s participation in the finals. Sourav Ganguly was Man of the Match in both the matches. Then came the all important final versus Australia. The moment was not destined to happen is what I believe as Australia crushed India to be the champions yet again.
Sourav Ganguly has a love story with ‘Man of the Match’ awards as well. He has won 31 Man of the Match awards. Sachin Tendulkar has won the most Man of the Match Awards – 62.
Most Man of the Match Awards
| Player | No:of Awards |
| 62 | S Tendulkar |
| 48 | S Jayasuriya |
| 32 | Kallis, Ponting, Afridi |
| 31 | V Richards, Sourav Ganguly, K Sangakkara |
| 30 | Brett Lee, A de Silva |
