It’s still anyone’s game. The ball gets hit to the extra-cover boundary.
The second run is on. The entire country is on its feet channeling Rajesh Khanna’s ( Disco Dancer) “Ga beta Ga” in a collective “Bhaag beta Bhaag”.
And then the two teams draw apart. Once again.
A flat beautiful under-pressure throw comes in at the ideal height for the keeper. Typically Australia.
The Indian player running to make the crease decides not to dive. And gets run out by a frame. The match is lost. Typically India.
Haag beta Haag.
Watching today’s game was like walking through a time-portal. It was the 90s all over again. Australia power to a humongous score losing just four wickets. If you looked at the right hand side of the score-card and blanked out the left (i.e. names) you would be forgiven for thinking that Mark Waugh, Adam Gilchrist, Ricky Ponting, Michael Bevan had been the batsmen.
And then when India bats, there is Sachin at one end, towering, imperious and carrying the weight of billions of people on his shoulders. And a few Mickey Mouses at the other. There is a brief Ganguly cameo. Oh wait that was Sehwag. Then there is a middle-order collapse—was that Azharuddin who just got flummoxed by a ball that jumped on him? No it was Yuvraj. Surely that cant be a Youngistan player who doesnt run covering the wicket from a throw but actually swerves away, in the process taking extra steps as well as giving fielders a view of the stumps, something that should be burnt into any international cricketer’s DNA as a “no-no”? Emm it actually is.
Is that Jadeja who commits kamikaze, ants-in-pants and totally loses the plot? Yes it is. Not that Jadeja. A new Jadeja. Same difference.
Is that thumping cover-drive punch from Sachin? Is it? Yes it is. Will it be curtains the moment he gets out?
It certainly will.
So there you have it folks. Another whole day wasted, like the many days wasted in the 90s, watching a game India manages to lose in the last over. Principally because in this decade, we are still decades behind Australia in running, fielding and finishing.
Okay maybe not wasted. Because we got to watch a Sachin master-class with some of his off-stump play being of the 98 vintage—his annus mirabilis. Yes we know. He could not finish it off. But maybe that was all for the better—–the rest of the Mickey Mouses did not deserve to finish winners today.
And so deja vu. Sachin Man of the Match, morose and disconsolate at the podium, accepting a prize for yet another superhuman effort with a touching “Playing for India has always been motivation enough” message, something perhaps a few of the IPL stars in the team need reminding. The Australian captain with a “We rule” smile on his face. Dhoni with the “Aaj haar” (defeat today) expression we grew up dreading.
The more things change the more they stay the same. Sadly.
The Greatbong Blog & Podcast 
Sigh
Time for Tendulkar to retire.. This team does not deserve HIM..and he should forget his dream of a world cup dream..there are something even Sachin cant do..:-(..
Hats off to the man
Truly ’90s all over again. Master, take a *bow*. You deserve better, Indian team doesn’t. Be it Azhar’s losers or Dhoni’s youngistan, result will always be same. And thus Sachin’s world cup dream will always remain a dream.
Time for Tendulkar to retire.. This team does not deserve HIM..and he should forget his dream of a world cup dream..there are something even Sachin cant do..:-(..
Hats off to the man
to see him walk up to collect the mom award – that’s the saddest i’ve ever seen him look on a cricket field. or at least amongst the saddest.
heart-breaking. if we feel so much pain, how must he be feeling?
Understand the frustration. And I fully agree with “all for the better—–the rest of the Mickey Mouses did not deserve to finish winners today”. But the analogy with the teams of the 90s is not totally fair – they would never reach 347, they would lose by a 100 run margin.
Cancelled many things to watch today’s match.
And all I can say is “Journey is certainly as important as the destination, if not more”
We didnt finish, but I would put the 3 hour joy of watching the master batting the way he did today above the 60 second adrenaline I would have got on us winning.
Sachin’s god !!!!
I seriously think we should give separate targets to India and Sachin. Sachin would have won way too many of his personal tagets. Today too he reached his target of 50% of India’s runs in far less balls. Pity…
And even though we lost, Me and my friends celebrated, all for the great man’s innings.
Dhyanchand,
I dont agree. Since the 90s, the amount of runs scored in 50 overs, on average, has increased. (India did chase down 314 in 1998 also in Dhaka). Adjusting for the increased speed of scoring in the 2000s, I would say this was a 300 total for the 90s and a 275 total for the 80s.
A cricket match made me nostalgic after a long time today.It was not like the instant euphoria of a close T-20 match,which is erased from your memory the very next day. My heart kept pounding as the cricket GOD took us so close to a near impossible target,but the jokers brought back the memories of 1999 Chennai Test match against Pakistan,where his 136 on a crumbling pitch went in vain or several other “so near yet so far” situations involving the Indian cricket team.
WTF you hero worship sachin for? I mean Honestly .He is gonna play till he is 50 for sure. Take any talented player, Hmmmmm… let’s say, Rohit Sharma and tell him this: Boss, Don’t worry about getting dropped , just keep playing till you wish . He can go on to score like 25k runs for sure .
You indians are crazy!!!
WTF you hero worship sachin for? I mean Honestly .He is gonna play till he is 50 for sure. Take any talented player, Hmmmmm… let’s say, Rohit Sharma and tell him this: Boss, Don’t worry about getting dropped , just keep playing till you wish . He can go on to score like 25k runs for sure .
You indians are crazy!!!
The 80s weren’t good either. Who can forget the Tied Test or the test India failed to win where Gavaskar almost won us the match or the last ball Chetan Sharma six at Sharjah.
The more things change, the more they remain the same, indeed.
I was screaming few overs before(when it was left to 48 of 40 balls..
“Sachin, if you have to get out..then get out NOW(obviously out of sheer nervousness).. otherwise you will again be remembered for “NOT DOING ENOUGH” and be reminded again and again of that Chennai match..
Well, the Jokers have re-created the moment in the history..
Sachin sachin…what is the hype all about him….he is not the best that cricket has to offer, ricky pointing is the coset competition to him, compare his stats to sachins, here
http://www.itsonlycricket.com/entry/1237/
He has a better average than sachin in test cricket, 40 odd less innings than him, 2 years younger to him and…. he is fit.
When you compare one days… well sachin is 100 one days ahead of him ..but thay is because India plays too much of cricket.
Like some one said, its time for him to retire!
Same old story: When everything seems right for the Indian team to win, Fit still hits the Shan.
Never mind: There’s always the next match… to lose.
Sachin has always deserved a better team. Dhoni didn’t even acknowledge his knock during the presentation.
@Rajnish
Sachin, if you have to get out..then get out NOW(obviously out of sheer nervousness).. otherwise you will again be remembered for “NOT DOING ENOUGH” and be reminded again and again of that Chennai match..
Good one man… he will always be remembered for “Not DOING ENOUGH”.
Funny how the world works!
@Tejaswy,
LOL. Remembering your vicious defense of racist Australians on this blog before (like “Indians provoke the Australians”) and now this, I am curious. Does trying to get Australian citizenship require you to submit as evidence to their immigration services these “patriotic” comments?
As to the rest of your contention, I won’t bother to refute it. All I can say is that if Bradman thinks that Sachin is the closest to him, then that is good enough.
I felt I was back in school! What a knock.. Aussies should refuse to play him! 😀
The rest of the morons… well I have nothing to say!
GB, Agreed, I got my dates wrong, what I meant was the time before the fab three became the core of the Indian team.
@Tejaswy,
you need to watch cricket for at least 10-20 years and then may be, you will realise that cricket is a little more than just stats (btw, which are heavily stacked in his favor, just that People keep changing the lens to see the stats)..
I never usually comment (or care) about cricket.
Not today.
For some reason I took the day off to watch this match and was reminded why Sachin is the greatest batsman ever.
Oh what an innings. Genius he is.
@Greatdong
What more do you expect from that arrogant Dhoni? He doesn’t deserve Sachin in his team.
@Tejaswy Not the right time. Not the right forum. Nor the right way..
It was indeed a throwback to the ’90s. Absolutely spot on. Jadeja should be shown the door for his rabbit-in-the-headlights act or at least rested – that was ugly. Bevan made a great comment – India had absolutely no idea as to how to handle the situation when Sachin got out. This with 19 needed off 18! Jadeja and Praveen Kumar could have seen it through. All Jadeja had to do was stick around.
I couldn’t help but think of Misbah Ul-Haq’s shot the way Sachin got out. What a shame he couldn’t finish it off in style. He was a man possessed. As the innings built up I noticed people gathering everywhere there was a television set, and that hasn’t happened in a while. Pity it ended the way it did.
Regardless of whether Dhoni is arrogant, Dhoni did contribute heavily to the two wins so far. Jumping on him for this would be unfair.
For all his double-hundred aspirations, Sehwag rarely lasts the first ten overs. He needs to make it count and make sizable contributions.
I felt so very nostalgic watching this match. After a long time , with the T20 charade and the current crop of mercenaries having somewhat diminished my fervent cricket worship, I felt as if I had time traveled to my school days. Waking up energized in the morning, waiting with bated breath for the day’s excitement, bunking JEE tuitions, analysing for the umpteenth the team’s strengths with friends and reaching the same conclusion that Tendulkar (and Ganguly and Dravid) would have to fire for us to have a chance, waiting for the toss and swearing at the ads and the TV guys who insert them at the most in-opportune moment, cheering every ball , cursing the slow batsman at the other end, praying, trembling, jumping at every ball and then ultimately witness the buffoonery of the rest of the team as we collapse after a nail biter setup by yet another brilliant innings. That mixed feeling, sweet and bitter, and the hope that it was only a matter of time before we would rule.
Felt bad for the Master, but happy to have experienced something I had almost forgot.
Sachin played a fabulous knock…he should not have gone for that shot…but hindsight is always 20-20. My reaction was the same as yours GB…90s all over again. Sachin plays well…almost everyone else chokes. Not grounding the bat, or not obstructing the stumps while running between the wickets should be reasons to void the players’ advertisement contracts!
@tejaswy
Let’s not forget that for most of his career, Ponting has played for the mightly Aussies, which insulates him from serious pressure, provides him capable partners at the other end, and good bowlers @ fielders to ensure that he gets to bat comfortably. Sachin, on the other hand, has always been in a team whose victories correlated with his hundreds impressively, and has been carrying the team on his shoulders. I have never seen Ponting do that, and I daresay he cannot. He is a batting great no doubt, but not a spot on Sachin.
agreed taht sachin played a great innings, but just dont ridicule other players. remember india won 2 match of this series without sachin contribution and even after 2000 they won many games without sachin contribution. remember yuvi and dhoni against pak in pakistan, yuvi’s back to back man of the series award, dhoni, gambhir and sehwag also won matches for india often. like it or not the tag of not doing enough or can’t finish the match will always be with sachin (exclude the chennai test against englend where india chased down 387 ang sachin hit a ton)
@Rohan
I dunno about you , But Ricky’s numbers speak for himself.
Too bad you don’t seem to appreciate any one else other than Sachin.
You want to take Bradman’s word…..wasn’t he an Australian?
Yawn!
Go through the link gave you in my earlier posts, compare their test careers.
Yes even though he was Australian, he considered Sachin to be the greatest. He wasnt desperate for a citizenship.
By the way Pamela Anderson has the bigger breasts than Aishwarya Rai. Guess who is concerned more beautiful?
Time to get that head out of that hole it is in. Dont yawn in it too much though. Might explode your brain or whats left of it.
Well said, GB. My sentiments exactly.
Sorry it should be “considered” and not “concerned”
As somebody said, this has all over deja vu of 1999 chennai test written on it. Having witnessed the entire last day of that chennai test and and gotten my heart broken, i was hoping not get scars from today’s game…but alas Indian cricket does not change, outcome remains the same with different set of players. So disturbed after that incident that I remember not watching cricket for a year.
I wonder is it in us indian genes that we can not play any sports under pressure, are we mentally and physically suitable to attain heights in athletic activities?? It’s not only cricket you look at any sports india particpate, there more or less is the same story.
It was the same old story that had been played over and over in 90s where we always hoped one or two players will carry us to the destination. And when it comes to applying some skills together under pressure, we won’t have any clues how to approach and are destined to fail.
Definitely today’s game has opened up old wounds and will take some time to heal..i am sure it will be the case with all other fans…
What is the saddest part is, look at the situations in our favour
– Best batting line-up India can have at this time – full strength
– Worst bowling line-up Australia can have at this time or ever
– So called psychological advantage from the above two points
– home ground advantage
and what is the result??
Nice blog, I’ve stopped watching India playin cricket or for that matter any other sport as it gets me depressed most of the time
hmm. I thought it was only a few days back when those same Mickey Mouses put up a score of 354 and thulped the No. 1 team by a whopping 100-run margin with Sachin contributing sweet-all. I don’t remember that happening much in the ’90s.
The match was almost a deja vu of the India-Pak Chennai test match in 1999, when Tendulkar almost single handedly brought the game to India . But when he was gone with about 17 runs to win and 3 wickets left, Pak succesfully wrapped up the game.
@Liberal
That is a very good point that you make. True, very true.
Heart-breaking, thats the only feeling I have, very very sad!! My take on Sachin here: http://abracababra.blogspot.com/2009/11/greatness.html
A great, great innings, ended by the only bad shot he played…sigh. But Aussie fielding has really proved to be the difference in the sides. Voges’ catch of Dhoni was one of the best I have seen at point. Also our bowling is still brittle – why would we even give 350 runs away? At least the Aussies have the excuse of playing without their best bowlers and with a debutant, who took 3 wickets. What excuse do we have?
For all who call this India’s best ever ODI team, consider that we have ONE effective bowler in Nehra, that’s it. The others are just making up the numbers. What is Jedeja even doing in the team?
@Anirban:
“@Greatdong
What more do you expect from that arrogant Dhoni? He doesn’t deserve Sachin in his team.”
Great…umm…DONG??????? How did you know? 😉
Watching yesterdays Innings, He just validated my one of thought I had in the 90s … What if Tendulkar had opted for a single player game like Tennis where you dont depend on anybody for the ULTIMATE VICTORY. He could have been Federer of India … The temperament on display was unmatched!
Your comparision of dismissal of Azhar and Yuvraj was spot on…
What about sportsmanship spirit? We lost but cricket won??
I wish we could somehow do away with the emotional attitude that marks our game. I understand that the same sentimentalist attitude works wonders for us every now and then and helps us achieve the seemingly impossible, but its also that which makes us lose sitters.
I like how Aussies are a tight fighting machine that treat a game for what its worth without letting the backlog of defeats or the lack of public support impact them.
I wish we could be that machine – then we won’t need to bank on the heroics of individuals like Sachin.
Some defeats are a bit like those memorable movies where the boy loses the girl in the end …despite the sad finish there’s immense beauty, it nags gently & never fades from memory
@shan: “For all who call this India’s best ever ODI team, consider that we have ONE effective bowler in Nehra, that’s it.”
Results speak for themselves, don’t they? Here is the Win/Loss record of the Indian team for every 2-year period going all the way back to ’80s.
Years W/L Ratio
82-83 14/14 – 1.0
84-85 11/11 – 1.0
86-87 24/24 – 1.0
88-89 16/21 – 0.8
90-91 14/12 – 1.2
92-93 17/20 – 0.8
94-95 23/13 – 1.8
96-97 23/41 – 0.5
98-99 45/34 – 1.3
00-01 27/31 – 0.9
02-03 35/23 – 1.5
04-05 30/28 – 1.1
06-07 33/30 – 1.1
08-09 33/16 – 2.1
For most of those 3 decades, we were always a 50% team – one win for every loss, sometimes going down to a win for every two losses like in 96-97. In the last two years that has become 2 wins for every loss, the kind of ratio Australia had in their pomp. That is a huge turnaround. If that doesn’t qualify for this team to be called the best ever Indian ODI team, I don’t know what does. With such results, talking about “Mickey Mice”, “IPL heroes” etc is just churlish.
India needs more south indian players. They are paying for sacking south indians Venkatesh Prasad (best slow paced fast bowler) and Robin Singh.
jm, I was just going to say all this sounds a bit too much like a collective Devdas syndrome. There is an element of sado-masochistic pleasure about it all, given how we seem to revel in the ‘nostalgia’ (of painful defeats!).
I was waiting for Kishore and there he is.
While the match was progressing with Sachin displaying a murder he reserved for Shoaib Akhtars of the yesteryear, it felt that even if we lost, it would still be a treat to have watched the maestro bat like that. But it shouldn’t have ended like that. So close, yet so far has become a national hobby!
Still proud to be living in the same era as Sachin Tendulkar..
“Still proud to be living in the same era as Sachin Tendulkar..”
Thanks Tejas. This echoes my sentiments
@ kishore,
“Venkatesh Prasad (best slow paced fast bowler)” – best ever summary of venkatesh prasad.
thinking of his action, it almost looked like he is spraying deo to his left armpit just before the delivery…
@Tejaswy I’d have thought of you as a spambot simply meant to prolong the discussion by citing useless stats, but they usually make more sense. So guess you’re just a troll. Anyway, here’s a thought which you are welcome to refute so that we can continue this fruitless discussion ad nauseam: Agreed, Ponting has a marginally higher average in Tests, but batting averages usually don’t increase with the number of matches one plays. In fact towards the fag end of a cricketer’s career, which is true for both Sachin and Ponting, averages tend to drop a little as being consistent gets increasingly difficult. Michael Bevan’s ODI average hovered around 80 when he had played only around 20-odd matches. Ditto for Michael Hussey in tests. The fact that Sachin has played 40 MORE Test innings and 100 MORE ODI matches does not stand in Ponting’s favour. If anything, it’s even more credit to Sachin.
Awaiting your comments, which are not welcome, but still a sad and necessary part of online discussions.
“Generations to come, it may well be, will scarce believe that such a man as this one ever in flesh and blood walked upon this Earth. “
Its not the nineties as i can easily switch the channel from the india australia match to much much more interesting european football on view …
Look at it from the Aussie point of view :
1) Your top bowlers are injured.
2) You are playing an away series against a team which a momentum of wins in its favour.
AND
3) You have the misfortune of being up against one of the best batsmen of our times in some of his most sublime form.
The match is slipping away from you and no score seems sufficient for a batsman in this type of form.
YET
your bowlers stick to their plan.
your fielders still field chase and throw with unerring accuracy.
In short, you don’t give up, even in an impossible situation.
Hats off to them for one of the most professional displays of cricket I have ever seen.
I could talk all day about his innings, but he said it best.
“I was striking the ball pretty well”.
Yes, you were.
Just a few more runs were needed… Sachin was hammering away… Cameras were zooming in to capture Ponting’s helplessness after every boundary…
Just when we were blaming ourselves for not stocking few “hydro-bombs” from the Diwali quota, everything got wrapped up with the Aussies celebrating… Again the same old story…
In a way, the predictability of Indian team being Unpredictable add more masala to the game!!!
I did not watch the match.
I love Sachin.
I sure missed one of the greatest knocks by the little master in the history of cricket…
BUT i dont care much for the youngistan-super-inflated-ego-i-am-too-good-to-be-true supposedly-best-indian-ODI-lineup.
Not only that, I was screamed at by my SACHIN WORSHIPPING BF for wasting my time installing stuff on my comp instead.
Im actually glad i did not watch it. coz watching the other YOUNGISTAN being shredded was not my idea of a perfect evening.
Hats off to HIM for playing such a great knock at a time when several people point out… that he should retire.
May he keep playing for those who love the game…
P.S. @tejaswi: no one expects pointing to come up with a knock like this. no one worships him. he is a great batsman. no doubt… but he is NOT sachin…
@ vinod: BUT his TENNIS ELBOW…
P.P.S.
i love this trend of GREATGUJJU, GREATMALLU…
was very tempted to do so myself… but gave up the idea coz i would have to name myself after the author…. maybe GREATBONG Jr. would have been appropriate
@plagiarism
Do you post on cricketonballs.com as Jrod? Coz if you don’t , your words are a straight lift from the latest post there.
GB , please take note , the URL is , http://www.cricketwithballs.com/2009/11/05/sachin-and-10-other-dudes/
@Tejaswy,
I am truly surprised that your comments have not been absolutely battered black and blue on this blog , given that you chose a wrong place , a wrong time, wrong words to publish your wrong views.
If stats are the only criteria, the only person who would have done absolute justice to his stats and vice versa. If Ponting is the only parameter, though for his no fault of his , he never played against the Mcgraths and the Warnes , the best bowling attack in the world. And I have every reason to believe that he would have been all that bullish against Warne given his not so illustrious record against even Bhajji. The point is, stats don’t carry the game, it is the fans and the charm of the player who do so. That is why stats are what they should be, a mere footnote.
Folks, while the loss was hard to take, this team has come a long way since the teams of the 90’s. The fact that we came within 3 runs of perhaps one of the largest chases in ODIs is something to be celebrated. I think Dhoni’s assessment was spot-on: India lost the mental game. And thank you, India and Australia for yet another reminder of how exciting and entertaining cricket can be.
The fab 3 carried Indian cricket say from late 90s n its jus one game after the golden period that the ‘Tendulkar n 10 fools’ phenomenon has happened. I don’t get what the fuss is about. That said, this was the master’s best knock ever for the mere fact that he gave the team an almost impossible chance with a target of 350.
@ Tejaswi:
While agreeing completely that Ponting is one of the greats, I’d like to point out that –
1. Sachin never had to face the lameduck Indian bowling. Ponting never had to face the greatest bowling machine in the history of cricket- the Aussies
2. Ponting had the luxury of being backed up by some of the best batsmen in the world . Sachin never had that luxury for most part of his career
3. Ponting has always batted at no 3 . & Sachin mostly at no 4. and even lower in the early days- Sachin has often found himself playing with tailenders for better part of the innings, esp while playing away from home
I feel its pointless to compare the two batsmen. They are the greatest of the generation, along with Lara. And each of them have some records that the other two can never dream to surpass.
it aches man !
some of them don’t even know what they are playing for !
country—i dont think so !!!
Remarkable as Sachin’s performance was, I was spell bound by the persistence shown by the Aussies. Remember that 8 of their front-line players and 3 of their replacements are injured. The easiest thing to do in such a situation would be to get demoralized but they once again showed that steel flowed through their veins.
But yeah.. What an innings. It had everything that made Sachin,Sachin.
Reading this post, I was reminded of this post on cricinfo (though I know you really don’t like ’em too much) – http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/376791.html
But yes, the Jadeja analogy, and in general, the match reminded me of so many such matches , most of all the one we lost to Pakistan at Chennai, and if someone might remember , the one we lost to Australia at Sharjah (this was the first of his 2 great hundreds in 1998 – in which he ensured that we qualified, but he was out and things fell through )
On another note,,When MS Dhoni and his young guns won the T20 World Cup and the tri-series in Australia, they gave an impression as if the new generation had arrived. But, this time’s T20 World Cup and their subsequent dedication to Team India- sometimes feel really questionable. I might be wrong, but somewhere I believe the IPL’s cash is somewhere reducing the commitment these youngsters show for Team India
Hmm. True. It was the fielding which made the difference. India has learnt many things from the Aussie way, and is now the powerhouse of cricket. But the basic things…..basic technique….fielding…..running..,catching etc are stillllll so neglected at grassroots level in India….that these lacunae shall remain for a few more years. Australia surprised me. New players whom I thought were not good enough….are stepping up to the plate of the legends of the last decade, and performing the same things with the same effectiveness, if not the same flamboyance. Their current team has a 1987 type of grit to it, unattractive…but efficient. Notice the basics of their players….so sound…so strong.
Yup, this match was the 90’s all over again where Indians played like sheer genius without paying attention to the basics – typical Azharuddin – had a golden wrist but always ran between the stumps carrying his bat in both hands…
But overall, they have been playing good cricket in this series GB. At least give them that. Dhoni and Yuvaraj did play their part when Sachin didn’t in a few other matches. All fair and square I say.
The man is special…as someone previously said…Fortunate to be in the same era as Sachin!
But as a team, we really lack an allrounder…not the yuvraj/jadeja types…need a kapil type of a guy…
@ Sumit,
“@plagiarism
Do you post on cricketonballs.com as Jrod? Coz if you don’t , your words are a straight lift from the latest post there.
GB , please take note , the URL is …”.
Well..That is what s/he is expected to do given the name ‘plagiarism
‘
GB, how bt a follow-up post for the astounding performance of loosing first 5 wckts for 27 runs!!! We may win from here, we may loose, but wtf was that!!!
Q: How can Zimbabwe team beat India in an away ODI series?
A: They can call themselves Aus and wear yellow/green, Indians will beat themselves!!!
Same old rum in same old bottle but people like u wont stop drinking!
@anonymous of 2 posts above,
thanks for explaining 🙂
@sumit,
may be you should read that great poem by tagore to ray on shishirbindu and stuff. You went so far to copy paste the link but you did not read my name???
or was it beyond you to comprehend?
@ sumit,
also why this ” GB, please take note…” stuff? why are you complaining?
are you in class 7? did i eat your tiffin forcefully?
Most of the permutations and combinations have been exhaustively discussed with relevant stats. Here’s my two pence. Sachin is no doubt a God, probably the only one. But there is no place for a God in a team. The second you/the team/anybody else pins their hopes on one man, the term ‘team’ falls apart. Sachin probably helped Indian cricket rise to dizzying heights, but what if he was not there? Probably we would have had a stronger team with real players and not dummies who are just there to fill in for Sachin’s occasional follies.
Another Observation:
India is somehow always bulding a team for the future /for the world cups and in doing so, gets in relative greenhorns with a few spectacular performaces in the domestic league. Whereas, Australia rarely does that. It reposes faith on proven/consistent performers with tons of runs over multiple seasons – its not rare to see people wearing Aussie colors after 25 years of age.
Therein, lies the difference. Some of these youngsters take it too easy when success comes relatively early and easy. They should be made to toil for a India cap and which will make them place value on it.
Good write up. It hurt more, as me and my wife were in Uppal stadium and till that point were watching the best innings every played!!
Sigh!!
@plagiarism
I posted the link to give the credit where it was due , which you so conveniently managed to skip.
Calling yourself plagiarist only highlights the admission you so make of your own cheating. It also shows that though you knew you were doing the wrong thing you still went ahead with it calling yourself plagiarist as if it to show that it is an acceptable way to assuage your own guilt.
And neither do I go to class 7 nor do I carry tiffin. But I sorely miss that and wish that I was forever that small. Thanks for your good wishes. You made me feel so young.
@Sumit,
one more 🙂
are you gonna bark all day little doggy, or are you gonna bite?
Person one: Sachin is the greatest cricket player in the world
Person two: On what basis do you day that?
Person One : I don’t know, But he is the greatest player in the world?
Person two: Do you mean in Test or one day, Have you even compared his stats to any one else?
Person One : NO, I don’t have to I don’t want to …he is just the greatest player in the game, and because you do not agree with me I doubt your patriotism and hence you are not an Indian, you are a spam bot,an idiot who does not like India.
@Tejaswy Nice try, but sarcasm really ain’t your style, so leave it to the pros. You have to realize that to a great extent, favorite batsmen are indeed based on personal opinions of armchair analysts. You can defend those opinions with facts, but at least try to make some sense. I guess your entire stand has been taken apart admirably by enough people on this thread alone, but you may choose to ignore that in the interest of your self-esteem. Anyway, in composing your little dialogue you didn’t remember to address the logical flaw in your earlier argument. What train of logic leads you to conclude that a player’s batting average should increase with the no. of innings he plays? More specifically, why exactly does Ponting deserve more credit if he has played less test innings than Tendulkar? As far as I remember, Ponting’s test average has fallen from over 58 to less than 56 during the last couple of years alone. Does that statistic light a bulb in the space between your ears? I doubt it does, so I’ll spell it out for you: you really shouldn’t rate one batsman higher than the other based on a difference of a couple of points in their batting averages. If you have any other sensible argument in favor of Ponting, let’s hear that and not indulge in needless Sachin-baiting just for whoring attention.
And just for the record, I don’t care much about how the Indian team performs as long as Sachin plays well. So mock me all you want for mindless hero-worship, but not for mindless patriotism.
Aah I cherish those 90s. Forget ODIs, I would watch every single ball of even a test match India is playing. But then I get so much frustrated seeing India loose all the close matches esp to Pakistan; I shut the door of cricket from my life. It’s been 9 yrs- I don’t watch it. I don’t follow it, I don’t have even a speck of an idea what’s happening in the cricket world. But once in a while I stop by(while zapping channels) when I see Sachin batting regardless of whether it’s a live match or a very old one. And I reminisce.