Darren Sammy, the West Indian captain did dare to say it - the West Indians will try and stop Sachin Tendulkar from scoring his 100th International 100. And they did do it too.
Sachin got out at 94 caught by Sammy off the bowling of Rampaul and the crowd was absolutely stunned. I am not much impressed with the way the Mumbai pitch has been reportedly tweaked to favour batsmen.
Sachin Tendulkar is a class batsman and in my opinion does not require such ‘hand-outs’ to achieve milestones.
All he has to do is play his natural game and the 100th Hundred will come sooner than later. OTOH, if he doesn’t ever score that century, it would not make him a lesser cricketer than any other.
BTW I am not one of the multitude who get into flame-wars over which cricketer is the ‘best’ ever! For me each cricketer was the best at that particular time and trying to compare one with another, especially over extended time scales, when playing conditions like the pitch, the bowlers, the batting technique, personal protection, athletic ability of players, amount of cricket, match schedules all vary so much, is an exercise in stupidity.
Again even comparing two contemporaries like Sachin versus Kallis, Ponting, Peitersen, et al., is not correct as all of them do not face the same bowling attack or conditions while they play.
The closest we can compare Sachin to anyone is his own colleague Rahul Dravid, who it can be argued has faced almost similar conditions since he plays with Sachin for India. And that comparison does not take the shine off either one of them.
Today, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid are the first and second top Test run scorers ever. As of now, they are the only two batsmen ever to cross 13,000 run mark in Test Cricket, though Ponting and Kallis are just 500 and 1000 runs behind Dravid.
stats courtesy cricinfo
That table speaks about the irrationality of the ‘who-is-the-best-batsman’ argument and how fortunate cricket lovers are right now to be able to watch four of the finest batsmen ever to play cricket ever (five if we include Lara who retired 5 years ago)
Their nearest still playing batsmen are Jayawardene, Chanderpaul and Sangakkara who are sprinting to cross 10,000. (Oh OK! for Sangakkara it would be more than a sprint).
The next still playing highest aggregator is Laxman who is 5 places behind Sangakkara (at 8500+ runs) and then Sehwag another 7 places behind Laxman with 7900+.
My Wicked half whispers, ‘Whatever else other batsmen can or cannot do, only Sachin can get a Ferrari duty free and offload it quietly later’.
:-P
Sachin got out at 94 caught by Sammy off the bowling of Rampaul and the crowd was absolutely stunned. I am not much impressed with the way the Mumbai pitch has been reportedly tweaked to favour batsmen.
Sachin Tendulkar is a class batsman and in my opinion does not require such ‘hand-outs’ to achieve milestones.
All he has to do is play his natural game and the 100th Hundred will come sooner than later. OTOH, if he doesn’t ever score that century, it would not make him a lesser cricketer than any other.
BTW I am not one of the multitude who get into flame-wars over which cricketer is the ‘best’ ever! For me each cricketer was the best at that particular time and trying to compare one with another, especially over extended time scales, when playing conditions like the pitch, the bowlers, the batting technique, personal protection, athletic ability of players, amount of cricket, match schedules all vary so much, is an exercise in stupidity.
Again even comparing two contemporaries like Sachin versus Kallis, Ponting, Peitersen, et al., is not correct as all of them do not face the same bowling attack or conditions while they play.
The closest we can compare Sachin to anyone is his own colleague Rahul Dravid, who it can be argued has faced almost similar conditions since he plays with Sachin for India. And that comparison does not take the shine off either one of them.
Today, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid are the first and second top Test run scorers ever. As of now, they are the only two batsmen ever to cross 13,000 run mark in Test Cricket, though Ponting and Kallis are just 500 and 1000 runs behind Dravid.
| Player | Span | Mat | Inns | Runs |
| Tendulkar (India) | 1989-2011 | 184 | 302 | 15180 |
| Dravid (ICC/India) | 1996-2011 | 160 | 277 | 13061 |
| Ponting (Aus) | 1995-2011 | 156 | 267 | 12557 |
| Kallis (ICC/SA) | 1995-2011 | 147 | 250 | 12005 |
| Lara (ICC/WI) | 1990-2006 | 131 | 232 | 11953 |
| Border (Aus) | 1978-1994 | 156 | 265 | 11174 |
| S Waugh (Aus) | 1985-2004 | 168 | 260 | 10927 |
| Gavaskar (India) | 1971-1987 | 125 | 214 | 10122 |
| Jayawardene (SL) | 1997-2011 | 125 | 207 | 9954 |
| Chanderpaul (WI) | 1994-2011 | 137 | 234 | 9709 |
| Sangakkara (SL) | 2000-2011 | 103 | 173 | 9167 |
That table speaks about the irrationality of the ‘who-is-the-best-batsman’ argument and how fortunate cricket lovers are right now to be able to watch four of the finest batsmen ever to play cricket ever (five if we include Lara who retired 5 years ago)
Their nearest still playing batsmen are Jayawardene, Chanderpaul and Sangakkara who are sprinting to cross 10,000. (Oh OK! for Sangakkara it would be more than a sprint).
The next still playing highest aggregator is Laxman who is 5 places behind Sangakkara (at 8500+ runs) and then Sehwag another 7 places behind Laxman with 7900+.
My Wicked half whispers, ‘Whatever else other batsmen can or cannot do, only Sachin can get a Ferrari duty free and offload it quietly later’.
:-P
haha good one !!!
ReplyDeleteJokes and Jokes :)
ReplyDelete@ Who is God
ReplyDeleteWhy not? After all, (John 1:45-51):
Philip found Nathanael and said unto him, "We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" [Joke!]
:-)
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