Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
Although Sachin has completed 20 years in international cricket, I hope and believe he still has a few more left and this is not quite the time to write summaries of his career. There are many records that he has established or broken already. But it makes me wonder how people can say “he has broken all batting records”, as clearly there are many obvious ones that he is yet to break or achieve. So instead of going over his stats so far I am trying to highlight the things we fans want him to do.
There is a reason for that. Tendulkar had a lean patch starting somewhere in 2004 that lasted till the World Cup of 2007. He did score a few hundreds during this time but never looked like the Tendulkar we knew. People, even players who are supposed to know about lean patches, started writing Tendulkar off. But then he came back to form in the tour of Ireland and England of 2007. Since then mostly he has been in great touch and has been even doing things he hasn’t done much before - like staying unbeaten in a big chase of fourth innings to win India a match, like he did in December 2008 against England at Chennai. So what fun it would be if he starts breaking those other records that are not in his list yet!
The record that comes to mind immediately is a test triple hundred! But before we go there, Tendulkar definitely has had many attacking innings before - I am listing three that come to my mind and I chose these three because they represent three different match situations:
Against South Africa at Bloemfontein, 2000 - India were 68/4 when Tendulkar and debutant Sehwag came together for a 220 run partnership in just 47 overs. Tendulkar scored 155 off just 184 balls. Many teams have exploited such situations to win games, but India wasn’t quite there yet there then. There was hardly any other substantial score from anybody else in both the innings and our bowling’s inability to restrict South Africa prevented India from winning or saving the game. Here is the YouTube link.
Against Australia at Chennai, 1998 - India had conceded a lead in the first innings which was already wiped out when Tendulkar came to bat in second innings. But the match was still open and Warne’s reputation was still intact. Some 60 overs later Warne had been taken for 122 runs and India set a “historical” target of 348 runs to Australia (in the tied test of 1987 Australia had set India the same target at Chennai) and India won the match.
Against England at Leeds, 2002 - Tendulkar came to bat at a healthy 185/2 but what was more important was it 74 overs were alredy bowled in which Bangar and Dravid had seen through the most dangerous period of the match. Then Tendulkar and Ganguly put together a 249 run stand in just 60 overs with both going on total attack in the later part of that partnership. India scored 628 and won the game as well. Here is the YouTube link.
So there are many matches where Tendulkar has played attacking but a huge double/triple hundred while playing like that has been missing. I know there are exceptions, but most of Tendulkar’s great centuries are scores around 150. As far as I remember none of his double centuries were very interesting to watch. He hasn’t scored even a big attacking double century yet.
A triple hundred itself doesn’t seem to be a measure of greatness, but many great batsmen of the current generation have them - Sehwag, (DPMD) Jayawardene, Jayasuriya, Gayle, Younis Khan. Then there are Kallis, Ponting, Dravid, Mohammand Yusuf, Graeme Smith, Laxman who have none.
I guess in general terms Tendulkar hasn’t had a huge attacking innings and it will be fantastic to see him do that!
Posted in cricket, Australia, India, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid, Lara, Dhoni, England, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Sehwag, Ponting, Ireland, Laxman | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008
The most awaited Indian domestic game finally started yesterday - The game that used to be the Indian season opener until India started playing all the year. Now India’s home season opener is a more correct description. Two weeks to the first test against the Aussies, so this game is supposed to provide glimpses of who is in form and who is not.
What have we got so far on the first day? Two players from main team not playing - Ganguly not included in the team and Tendulkar opted out due to fitness. The ROI team chose to bat - which was good if we wanted to see the batsmen’s form or rather get them into runs on a flat pitch. But the real test openers are likely to come from Delhi. So ROI sending in makeshift openers is fine, but in that process Dravid got dragged to the opening slot while he is working to regain his form and confidence. Wasim Jaffer doesn’t have much chance of getting selected at least against the Aussies and Dravid will probably play at his usual no 3. That is unless the team management wants him to open. So it’s the makeshift openers. Unfortunately yesterday between the two the one who has less chance of making it into the team played better. Now what do we do?
Then came the what could be the new middle order - Dravid already didn’t do much as an opener, Laxman made only 17. “Drop them, bring in the new guys”, you would have shouted. The only problem being, even Kaif (29) and Badrinath (16) didn’t do much. So at least in the first innings no new generation storming into the test side displacing any aging seniors. They will probably get another chance for them unless Sehwag decides to break Lara’s record and then play some more time.
Even for Delhi, they started with Chopra and Gambhir, of which only Gambhir is likely to make it into the test side. The one who will surely make is Sehwag but he is playing at no 3. So this seems to be a “hide your openers” ploy from both sides. May be Delhi is providing a chance to Chopra, who for some reason doesn’t get selected these days.
Posted in cricket, Australia, India, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid, Lara, BCCI, Sehwag, Kumble | No Comments »
Sunday, July 1st, 2007
A good start for Collingwood the one-day captain, a thumping 79 run win over the West Indies. But he follows the recent pattern of prolific scorer turned captain failing in his first match. Of the recent new ODI captains, Chris Gayle made 6 in the same match (his first game as captain was earlier this year before the world cup, but even then he made just 5), Shoaib Malik made 11.
The Windies, in the meanwhile, might be hoping the new English coach might say something that will trigger them, like Chappell did in 2006.
Posted in cricket, West Indies, Lara, Chappell, England, Pakistan, World Cup | No Comments »