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S.C. Ganguly

131

S.C. Ganguly 131 v EnglandBack to boards

On Thursday 20 June 1996 Sourav Ganguly strolled out onto the Lord’s outfield for his Test debut, by the Saturday of the match he had written his name into cricketing history.

All batsmen dream of scoring a Test century growing up, but few manage to do it on their debut and even fewer at the Home of Cricket.

In fact, only two men, Harry Graham of Australia in 1893 and England's John Hampshire in 1969, had achieved the feat before Ganguly.

The Prince of Calcutta - as he would become - batted for more than seven hours and struck 20 fours in his 131. He brought up his hundred with a cover drive off Dominic Cork, with Rahul Dravid quick to congratulate him from the other end.

Finishing on 429 all out, India were in command, but due to a slow scoring rate, there was little time left in the match to force what would have been a historic victory for the tourists at cricket’s HQ.