Sourav Ganguly has suddenly emerged a key batsman as India enters the important stretch in a tournament they have twice come close to winning in the past.

The India captain has two successive nineties under his belt and is constructing his innings really well. It augurs well for a team missing the services of Sachin Tendulkar at the top and worried about two of its young guns, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh, failing to get among the runs.

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Ganguly is biding his time at the start of his innings, giving himself enough time to settle down and then accelerate with some audacious strokes in the end.

If he can pull off one more such innings in the Champions Trophy match on Sunday against arch-rivals Pakistan, India will make it to the semi-finals of what is billed as the mini World Cup.

"I am not looking to rush up things; if I stay long enough at the crease I usually finish with a better strike rate in the end," said Ganguly.

Pakistan too is viewing Ganguly as a key scalp and his counterpart Inzamam-ul Haq lost no opportunity in stressing upon the fact.

"India has some outstanding batsmen and I have always admired Ganguly, along with Sachin [Tendulkar]," said Inzamam.

It might look too far fetched at this stage but if everything falls in place, India could be contesting the semi-finals, possibly against South Africa at Rose Bowl next Wednesday.

Among the Proteas, Ganguly has another admirer in Shaun Pollock, who feels the Indian has a "freak" sense of timing.

"He is audacious and has a freak sense of timing. I remember the sixes he hit against us in one of the series in South Africa," said Pollock.

Ganguly's career is replete with instances where his good scores come in a clutch, starting with his back-to-back hundreds in his first two Tests. The Indians are counting on more of it on Sunday.

It would help him and India immensely if batsmen like Virender Sehwag and VVS Laxman pick the threads from the other end and not force him to go on an overdrive in the early part of the innings.

His present approach of a sedate start might have been dictated by the total he feels defendable in these conditions.

"In these conditions, scores of 250 or 260 is usually a winning total," said Ganguly.

India, even without Tendulkar and a few out-of-form batsmen, are perfectly capable of raising such totals on the board and that too on slow pitches without resorting to urgent stroke-play.

No wonder another cricket legend is terming them second favourites behind Australia to win the title.

"Australia have got to be favourites but after them I fancy India," said South Africa's 'White Lightning' Alan Donald.

The two missed centuries mean Ganguly has not added one to his tally of 22 centuries for a while now. His last one came against Kenya 33 matches and 18 months ago in the 2003 World Cup, but at 9,789 runs from 261 games, the magical figures of 10,000 runs is not far off.

But then he would do anything to be third time lucky in a tournament in which India has twice come close and been thwarted in the past.