Prajwal Hegde/TNN

Bangalore, Oct 10: Bangalore provided the perfect stage for the celebrated Ganguly couple this week. While Dona put on her Odissi costume for a stirring two-hour performance on Tuesday evening, Sourav, who announced his retirement from international cricket that afternoon, pulled on his whites on Thursday for a final dance sequence of his farewell tour.

Dona, wife of the former India captain, picked Bangalore to perform during the Durga Puja holidays over the other invites she received. She wanted to be with her husband when India took on Australia in the first of the four-Test series, which is Ganguly's last series.

"I'm happy with the timing of his decision to quit Test cricket." she told TOI . "He's achieved everything he wanted to in international cricket, except for may be a couple of things like winning the One-day World Cup for India or scoring 10,000 runs in Test cricket. I don't think he can make that happen even if he plays for another year or so. He's going out the way he wanted to. I couldn't ask for more."

A seasoned danseuse, Dona is well aware of the mental and physical preparation that goes into a performance. "I'm not nervous anymore when I perform,"Dona explained. "I've performed outside Kolkata before. I've been dancing for longer than Sourav has been playing cricket,"she said with a laugh.

"I also play different roles, I'm a wife and a mother. I wanted especially to spend this time with Sourav, also I have my daughter's needs to look into. I also teach dancing in Kolkata. I have about 400-500 students. "However, she firmly drew a line when it came to comparing her career with her husband's. There's no comparison at all," she said. "He's a legend."