–Sachin Tendulkar’s 138 was his sixth hundred in 38 innings in finals, and it pushed his overall average in such matches up to an impressive 55.54. In his last three finals, he has notched up scores of 117 not out, 91 and 138, and India have won each of those matches.
–In all, Tendulkar has scored 1833 runs in finals, which is easily the highest – Sanath Jayasuriya is next with 1613. Tendulkar also ranks very high in terms of all-time averages in finals: among those who’ve scored at least 500 runs in finals, only three have a higher average. One of them is India’s current coach, Gary Kirsten – in 20 innings, he scored 1019 runs at an excellent average of 69.73. Tendulkar’s stats are very similar to those of Viv Richards, who averaged 55.73 at a strike rate of 84.78 in 17 finals. Brian Lara, on the other hand, has struggled in finals, averaging only 28.16, more than 12 runs below his career average. His one century and two fifties all came in his first four innings; in his last 14 finals, his highest score was 35.
– The Man-of-the-Match award was Tendulkar’s 59th in ODIs, and his eighth in finals. It was also his 14th Player-of-the-Series award. Tendulkar leads the all-time list in both categories – he is 11 clear of the second-placed Jayasuriya in the match awards and three ahead in the series awards.

Had Sachin really been bad in finals even before these Sydney Finals? I always felt that, but again Stats here seem to suggest otherwise..

Yes, Sachin played exceptionally well in Australia this time round (possibly the best he has played in ODIs), but let’s not get carried away by that and start attributing every famous knock of his to have been played under pressure.

The match against Pak was the last match for India in the group stage, prior to super six. India had already qualified by then (they had 16 pts. before the Pak match). Only Eng and Zim could have tied points with India if India lost to Pak (and Eng and Zim had won their remaining game), but since both had lost to India in their group matches, India would have qualified anyway. Same for the Pak-Eng-India tied at 16 points scenario, had that happened. In the end, neither Eng nor Zim could win their remaining match,but Zimbabwe’s match against Pak was washed out and hence Zim qualified.

Thus, that innings was played when the job was already done and is hence, not “an innings under pressure”, just a good innings. The great man needed to fire in the finals, which he couldnt. In fact, he seldom has before this tri-series final.

It always helps to get your facts right. Makes your post more credible.

you are taking a little too far. i hate aus team and their ways – just like any non-aussie would.

but you’d be kidding yourself if you forgot how difficult a team it still is.

dont you forget how they screwed india on a meagre run chase of 160. it took such a big effort from us to win it.

then the 180 odd they f’ed us bad.

it just happened to be the case that almighty sachin came to party in the finals and some good backing from youth factor made us win the finals. (ppl like ganguly and dravid are lost mentally against aussies even before the match starts, so this is where the youth really played a part i believe. plus praveen kumars brilliant spell)

if our current indian team plays 10 matches against aus, i bet we’l loose more than 6 to them.