Time and again it has been said that Sachin Tendulkar plays for records. Time and again it has been said that Sachin Tendulkar chokes when India has to chase a target of more than 250. And time and again Sachin Tendulkar replies to all his critics in his own style, by letting his bat talk.
5th November 2009 was no different when India had to chase a target of 351 and many, including Ponting thought that it would not be possible. This match reminded us of many other matches. The very score of 350 reminded me of the 2003 World Cup finals when Australia scored 359. A terrific start by Sehwag reminded me of two matches: one against Pakistan in the same World Cup and the Natwest Series finals in July 2002 in which India successfully chased 325.
And when Sachin took command, his Sharjah centuries of 1998, the CB Series finals last year and most of his marvelous innings came to my mind again because he was simply at his ‘best’. He started slow no doubt which showed that he did not want to lose his wicket at any cost. Slow and steady, when he reached the score of seven, the nearly 40,000 people present were on their feet cheering his 17,000th run not knowing that was just the tip of the iceberg.
The part of his innings which amazed me the most was his strike rate which got better even though he was running out of partners. When the pressure was mounting, he got a better grasp of the match by hitting consecutive sixes off Hauritz which were from the meat of the bat. And his earlier six off Shane Watson was an identical twin of the six he smacked in the 2003 World Cup off Andrew Caddick.
His innings was tailor made to take his country to victory. Hitting the boundaries at the right time, converting the ones into twos and the twos into threes, rotating the strike, and of course, preserving his wicket almost till the end.
But time and again it has happened that Sachin scores a big chunk of the total and still India loses. Everybody remembers the 1999 Chennai Test against Pakistan in which after he scored 136 of the required 271, the last three batsmen could not score the remaining 17 runs. Why blame the last three for losing? Couldn’t the frontline batsmen stick around for a little more time? And again, this time against Australia, he scored half the runs while most of the others went back to the pavilion in a hurry as if they had been holding their pee since birth.
With that mammoth score of 175 while chasing, I believe he surely scored one of his best centuries. No doubt, he wanted India to win more than anything else whether it was 175 or a 200. I hope with that remarkable century, some barmy critics do not question his ability again. I hope they do not ask him to retire again as they did a few times in the last couple of years. A man at 36 who reminded us of two of (Sharjah) innings he played more than a decade ago is surely unfit to retire. By taking India to victories in the CB finals in Australia last year, by scoring a flurry of 90s in 2007 and now, by showing the world that he does his best to make his team win, critics should focus only on the other players who need to be more responsible and dependable in times like these.
Critics will surely say that he has scored 45 tons but why has India won only 32 of those matches. Please realise that apart from him there are ten more players in the team who do not always score when they are supposed to and a few others give away too many runs which makes his half-centuries and centuries a part of records and not victories.
Loved the article! Indeed you are a Sport Journalist man!
ReplyDelete.....But on a different note, it was not the inning played by Kapil Dev when he pulled the victory against Zimbabwe in 1983 World Cup with single hand. I guess it was 175 too :)........and I wish to express my honest opinion here which most of the Indian Cricket fans will not like ...though Sachin is one of the greatest players in Cricket he is NOT Don Bradman, because media is discussing this ageold issue again after his 175.
Such is the Sach of Sachin. Your friend Atul is right and i second it, sports journalist is what ure calling always has bin, i hope you make the transition from Eco to Cricket soon. The ball by ball commentry which we are compelled to follow in office and college is so irritating. Wish you could do that , i mean I would love to read that the six that has just bin hit is identical to which one from history.
ReplyDeleteNice article. You know a lot about cricket and the instances you gave added to the substance.
ReplyDeletegood article man. I totally agree with what you said. People just cannot turn around and say that we lose when Sachin scores big. It's just ridiculous, surely, we should look at the other batsman who failed? The fact that Yuvraj, Dhoni and Gambhir each got out for less than 10 (if i'm not mistaken is where we lost this match). That match reminds me of the days when I was younger in the 1990s. Sometimes I used to feel like if Sachin got out, then that was it for us! Hopefully the middle order can settle and start to score, and we can at least end this series on a high before the Sri Lanka series! Look forward to more posts!
ReplyDeleteMacha!!! Brilliant article once again!!! Straightforward, true and hard hitting.... Definitely Mera No.1...... and I also love the one whr u thrashed the cricket CL..... :) Cheers!!!!
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