Why Ganguly dropped down the order

Even before he had come out to bat, Sourav Ganguly had set the tongues of Motera spectators in motion. On the first day, after Sachin Tendulkar edged Scott Styris to slip, in walked VVS Laxman at No. 5, when Ganguly was expected.

It was a counterintuitive change, for the left/right-hand combination of Dravid and Ganguly would have worked well for India. In addition, Ganguly would have come in long before the new ball was due, when Daniel Vettori was on at one end. But Laxman and India prospered, and although Dravid was asked about it after his century, he professed as much surprise as everyone else, and the matter was dropped.

But later on Ganguly sat out the Indian team's cooldown session on the first evening, and was instead deep in conversation. At one point, he indicated his upper thigh, and sure enough, at his post-play press conference today, Ganguly revealed that he was suffering from a mild groin infection.

Despite it, he went on to make an unbeaten 100, and declared immediately after reaching the milestone. "I had to make a decision, whether to bat on for the remainder of the day and try for 600, or whether to declare," he said. "But if we had batted on, it would have reduced the time available to bowl New Zealand out twice, and the conditions are hot, so the bowlers would have had to work hard."

Zaheer Khan made that workload much easier by prising out three top-order scalps, but Ganguly thought that the bowlers still had much to do. "It is still too early for the spinners, and although there is some rough out there at the moment, I think it will start turning slowly only by tomorrow evening."

His own innings was a measured one, influenced significantly by Stephen Fleming's field-placings. Fleming packed the field square and in front of square on the off side, trying to cramp Ganguly's pet strokes. "Well, I've been working on my own game too of late," said Ganguly. "We've had a long break, and I've changed my game a little, so I was able to deal with it."