When Saurav Ganguly was dismissed for 91 on the final day of the third Test, he nearly missed another feather in his cap. The 9 runs made a lot of difference. First because he could have reached yet another hundred - the second of the Test - and secondly because he could have reached the milestone of scoring a double-century and a century in the same match.
Those who have achieved this feat till now are - Dough Walters and Greg Chappell of Australia, Lawrence Rowe and Brian Lara of the West Indies, Sunil Gavaskar of India and Graham Gooch of England.
But nevertheless, Ganguly had already scored a 1000 runs in on calendar year by that time. But great men are really great. They don't play for any personal benefits, for any personal records. They don't think even to sacrifice their wicket if need be. They are great because they play for the team. They want their team to win. Team's interest is first on their minds. They play according to the situation. Not wondering on what personal score they are, or what record they are nearing they respect the good ball and don't hesitate to punish the odd bad ball. Exactly this seems to have happed to Saurav Ganguly, when he drove the ball right to the fielder - must have found himself in two minds.
Virendar Sehwag - the Test recall - too reached his milestone in a similar fashion - not worring about what mark he was reaching. That was the match in Multan when India had visited Pakistan in more than 10 years. Sehwag who was on 295 then, came way out of his crease to hit the ball right into the stands. Had be missed the line of the ball even slightly he would have been stranded short of his ground and short of 300. He even had the thing on his mind that no other Indian has reached this score before him, and that he would be the first to do so. But not worrying about anything else he gave it a shot and was successful.
Greatness has to be in the blood; it cannot be forced into you.