Farewell Time

Sachin Tendulkar has announced his retirement from One day international cricket. We will no longer see him in India blues, but the little master, as he is affectionately known in the cricketing world, will continue to be seen in whites in the longest format of the game. It was way back in 1989 that he arrived on the scene as a child prodigy, under the captainship of Krishnamachari Srikkanth, and made a mark in an exhibition match by hitting Abdul Qadir out of the park.

Not many know that Sachin had gone for the MRF pace foundation camp as a cricketer wanting to bowl fast but he was rejected by none other than Dennis Lillee. But he was more than useful with the ball as he has shown on many occasions during his illustrious ODI career.  In 1991-92 tri-angular series down under, he was handed the ball with only one wicket remaining. He got the wicket of Cummins and match ended up as a tie. In front of 100,000 spectators, he showed plenty of guts by asking his skipper to give him the ball in the famous Hero Cup semi final at Eden Gardens against South Africa which was also the first Day Night match at the venue. He conceded just 3 runs from 6 balls and helped India go through to the final. And in the final of that 1993 Hero Cup, Saching again did the trick for his captain by removing Brian Lara’s off stump.

He got his first chance as an opener in a match at Auckland in 1994. Waking up early, Indian viewers were pleasantly surprised to witness that innings of 82 runs which came in 49 balls. It was also the year in which he made his first ODI hundred against the mighty Australians at Colombo. Then came the world cup in 1996 where he showed tremendous form right throughout. In the semi final of that tournament, he gets stumped chasing a total of 250 odd with scorecard reading 98-2. Within seconds, the score becomes 120-8.

Over to Sharjah in 1998, India were on the verge of being thrown out of the series and Sachin comes to their rescue with a scintillating knock of 143 in 131 balls versus Australia and helping India to go through to the final. Even a desert storm could not stop him during that day such was his dominance. In the final, on his birthday, chasing a stiff target, he scored a well compiled hundred. That year was special for him, more so because he got invited to meet Sir Don at his home in Adelaide. Another match, this time in Dhaka, against his favorite opposition Australia, he comes up with a performance of 141 runs with the bat and 4 wickets.

2003 saw him getting the Man of the tournament for his superlative performance in the world cup but he couldn’t fulfill his dream of lifting it. Four year later, in the next edition of the ICC event, India got knocked out in the first round, bringing him to tears. Then came the Commonwealth Bank series in Australia, where he batted marvelously in both the finals to help India win the series in Australia for the first time. One more gem came against Australia, this time in Hyderabad, chasing a mammoth target of 350. He almost single-handedly took India to the brink of victory with an innings of 175 which made Mark Taylor, the former Aussie captain, feel that Tendulkar has had a rebirth.

This piece will be incomplete without mentioning that double century making him the first batsman in the history to reach that landmark in ODI history. This superhuman effort came against the likes of Dale Steyn who is by far the best fast bowler in the modern era. That was class personified. He is also very proud of India’s record of never losing to Pakistan in a world cup match. He has made significant contribution in those matches too. People still talk about his onslaught on Shoaib Akhtar, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis & Co. in that crucial match of 2003 World cup. 23 years, 463 games, 18426 runs, 49 hundreds, 96 fifties, 154 wickets…an era has ended. Thank you Sachin for the entertainment.

Time for a change?

One more failed campaign in one more edition of World T20. Let’s just say that India was done in by the format of the tournament slightly. Pakistan, Australia & Sri Lanka managed to go through to semis winning four out of five games. India, on the other hand, won identical number of games but they could not sneak in whereas the West Indies won two out of five games and still managed to get through to the semis.

So the big question: is it time for changes in the T20 team. May be yes, may be no but the issue as of now is whether to stick with senior players like Zaheer Khan and Virender Sehwag or not. Both of these players have dubious fitness records. They are not live wires in the field either. And as far as Gambhir is concerned, he needs to find his off stump otherwise his place might be up for grabs sooner than later. His record has dipped alarmingly in all forms of the game.

Dhoni seems to be under-utilizing himself as a batsman. He has not even managed to score a half century in four World T20 events thus far. He is a prolific scorer in shorter versions of the game so he should not have any hesitation in batting at number 4. He has made big scores in ODI cricket batting higher up the order. It just may be that he has run out of luck with 0-8 away losses in Test cricket and failure to make it through to the final round of Asia Cup as well as World T20.

The plates are full for Sandip Patil & Co., the new selection committee. Sandip Patil was a courageous batsman and I guess he will require courage aplenty in the next few months. In 2007, the committee had selected few unknown names in World T20 in South Africa and their fearless brand of cricket brought India the glory. May be it’s time for an overhaul of the team. This goes for Test team too due the retirements of stalwarts like Dravid and Laxman, earlier in the year. Testing times ahead for all the parties concerned, with England series looming large on their heads. Good luck team India!

Tondulkar has done India proud

At last the moment has arrived where we will all celebrate Sachin Tendulkar’s 100th 100. He has become the first batsman to achieve this feat. The first time I heard about Tendulkar was when he had scored over 600 runs in that amazing partnership with his childhood friend Vinod Kambli. After that day his was given few sobriquets like “wonder boy” and “small wonder”. That small wonder has achieved something very huge by scoring that ton against Bangladesh on 16 March 2012.

Century of century sounds so unrealistic and insane. The fan waited and waited for a year and four days for it to happen but the wait is finally over. They say that great things come in small packages. He has proved it right time and again. He keeps the statisticians busy while he is at the crease scoring those centuries. In ODIs, he has scored small amount of 49 hundreds which is a world record. He has made hundreds against 11 different countries. He was the first batsman to score a double hundred in an ODI.   In tests, he became the first one to reach 50 tons and both the innings were against the formidable attack of South Africans. Wisden named the Indian run machine as the leading cricketer in the world for 2010.   

It is a monumental effort when you sit back and think that he made his debut way back in 1989 and he is still around to provide us the entertainment in 2012. He has achieved long cherished dream of being part of a world cup winning team. It was disappointing that people were not that talking about India losing the match. Everyone was talking about the milestone. Perhaps it is easy for us to say that may be nothing is left now for him to achieve and he should hang his boots. But it is best left to the man himself to decide when to declare the innings as it were.

Everything said and done, I think people will agree with me in saying that we are all lucky that we live in the same era as Sachin. May the entertainment continue.

Brick has gone missing from the wall

Surprise surprice! India have lost the test match for the 6th time on the trot away from home. Now if this doesnt set the alarm bells ringing , nothing will. M S Dhoni won the toss and to his credit he chose to bat first which was a bold move. But India failed to cross 300 yet again! Its a shame when you consider that the famous indian batting lineup has scored something like 40000 runs between them.

Sehwag continues to throw his wicket away like he usually does. Gambhir does not know the whereabouts of his off stump. Laxman seems to have lost his silky touch ever since the year began. Although, Tendulkar has looked in great touch but he has failed to bail out india again. I think he will dislike one statistic about his illustrious career that he failed to win a single test series in Australia as well as South Africa. And less said the better incase of Virat Kohli. When he won the under 19 world cup, he was being looked upon as future captain of India. But if he continues to indulge in things like the fingergate then God only help him.

One man needs to be praised undoubtedly is the Aussie skipper Michael Clarke. Not only did he batted brilliantly but also declared without thinking about the personal glory. He could have achieved greater heights but he chose to keep the bigger picture in front which was to win and win they did inside 4 days. Clarke was very impressive in the previous edition of the T20 world cup in the West Indies too where he captained the side aggressively. Its amasing how many fast bowlers they have in their ranks. Apart from, Hilfenhaus, Siddle and Pattinson, they have the likes of Harris, Cummins, Johnson, Bolinger and Nannes to fall back upon. Seems as if McDermott has had a great influence in the performance of their bowling unit.

As far as India are concerned, thay have to turn things around in a big way to come out of this mess. Scores of 49, 30, 2, 2, 24, 1, 58*, 176*, 32, 31, 57, 15, 2, 1, 2, 66 is not a good reading if you are a supporter of VVS Laxman. Those magical wrists are not working anymore to bail India out. With only one major score of 176* in last few matches , and that too on a placid track of Eden Gardens, tells you that he is past his prime. Rahul Dravid has had a brilliant 2011 but in this series he has looked below par to say the least. His mode of dismissals would suggest that the brick in the 'wall' has gone missing. In four innings,he has been cleanbowled thrice;if you add the no-ball that stupefied his defenses in the Melbourne Test too,it is an alarmingly high percentage.The scorecards show that since 2011,he has already taken this exit route 8 times.

All in all, well played Australia !