After notching up his first hundred at Eden Gardens, Sourav Ganguly said it was a special feeling for him to reach the mark at his home ground.
"It feels nice to get a hundred anywhere, but at Eden Gardens it feels a bit different because I've played all my life on this ground. It would have been disappointing to end without a Test hundred here," Ganguly said here on Saturday.
On the elusive double hundred, the Kolkatan said, "I hope it comes sometime before I finish."
The former Indian captain said there would be a result in the second Test. "The first two days were the best batting conditions. It was a good toss to win. The surface will be good for batting tomorrow also. But probably after tea tomorrow and on the last two days it will turn a lot more than it's doing now. On sub-continental pitches the game can change very quickly on the fourth and fifth days. The pitch is already very dry and there are footmarks. It's going to be a result pitch," he said.
Ganguly added that spinners will have crucial role to play. "The spinners will definitely be the most important cog. But reverse swing will also come into play in the afternoon. Obviously, with 600 on the board and three days to go on a deteriorating pitch that is only going to get worse. If we bowl well we can pick 20 wickets," he said.
On the course of the game, he said, "We understand that the Pakistan total in the first innings might be a big one. That's why we made 616 and made the follow-on target suitably large. We have to bowl well and then make things difficult for them in the second innings."
Ganguly also detailed his game plan. "I just wanted to play the ball on its merit. I knew it was a fast outfield and that I would get value for my shots. The important thing was to bat long and not throw it away. What also helped me was the taking of the second new ball when I came in to bat yesterday. The SG ball gets soft and then it doesn't travel too far off the bat. But with the new ball I got good value for shots."
Ganguly also allayed fitness concerns over Zaheer Khan, who went off the field after bowling just 1.2 overs due to a muscle pull. "Zaheer's injury is not serious. He's going to bowl tomorrow."
