There's no doubt that Sachin's innings of 141 was simply astounding which almost guided India to a win. Not only the Indian media but also the Paki media are going gaga over Sachin's performance & why shouldn't they? It was indeed a great knock & Sachin thoroughly deserves it BUT what I find strange is that nobody is talking about the manner in which Sachin 'gifted' his wicket! Why did he play that shot which was totally uncalled for since he had already hit a boundary in that over (I think the ball just before he got out)? At that stage, India needed about 7.5-8 runs per over which meant that one hit to the fence plus another 4-5 singles every over would have been more than enough for India to get to the target of 330 runs & that is what he & Dravid were doing till that time; so what made him play such an atrocious shot. Moreover, he is experienced enough to read such a situation since he has been playing at the top level for 15 years now & is rated by many as the best batsman of this era; so what made him play such a dreadful shot? Of course, the others are also to be blamed for the fiasco but such an awful shot at such a crucial juncture of the match was nothing but idiosyncrasy
Ganguly needs a crash course on fielding placements and bowling changes. He can take a leaf or two from Martin Crowe's captaincy during the 92 world cup when with limited bowling talent he was able to choke the batting powerhouses by coming up with innovative bowling changes, like Patel opening the bowling. In the 2nd ODI the opening bowlers were getting pulversied and it never struck sourav "the pachyderm" ganguly that he has other options like shewag, sachin, yuvraj and himself. Guess all that needs to retain captaincy is either suck up to the administartors or stand behind the players. But the basic ingredient of cricket captaincy of reading the game going on right then and coming up with innovative solutions for the problem is absolutely not a requirement. Sourav , since its been quite a few years since you have been the captain of the India team, please show us that you do have the necessary qualities to lead a cricket team and stop letting teams score above 300 as a norm rather than a exception.
Just because it does not enable win does not mean that the innings was not played under pressure or does not have the value. Only the effort counts in valuing a innings, not the result. I won't accept any test innings has been played under more pressure than Sachin's 136 in the fourth innings of that Chepauk,Chennai Test against Pakistan. How stupid, careless and arrogant could Wisden be to not include that in the top 100? It is easily in the top 5. His other innings that should have been incuded are 119* v England at the age of 17 to save a test match, the centuries in Sydney and Perth in his first Australian tour, his Johannesburg 112,Capetown 169 and Bloemontein 154 against South Africa..There has never been a player who has performed better than Tendulkar under pressure. So we should cut the nonsense of petty criticisms against him. No one brings so much happiness to India (one billion people) as Sachin does. It is not just he plays for India. He has produced mini-Sachins like Sehwag for India. That is how he contributes to Indian cricket. the inspiration.... I doubt if any other cricketer has produced inspiration-siblings so effective as Sachin does. Just salute the genius..
It is one of the best ever cricket innings, not just an odi innings. Chasing such a huge score, he carried India single-handedly without any lucky shots. It was a genius at work. Only Tendulkar can play like this. Attaching the importance of an innings being match-winning is ok. But that need not be the only condition. If playing a matchwinning innings is all about pressure, then it was a neat fantastic innnings under huge pressure. People should forget whining about an innings not winning a match and as a result not good. Playing under pressure is the only thing and Tenulkar is so good at that. Playing under pressure should be the real criteria and there should not be petty remarks about winning/losing. People should be really superficial or idiotic if they say that Tendulkar does play under pressure. No one handles the pressure Tendulkar faces and no one has performed better than Tendulkar under pressure. How stupid could Wisden be when they did not list even a single Sachin inninngs in the top 100 list. His second innings Chepauk century against Australia after lagging in the first innings readily comes to mind. Enabling a win should only be one of the critieria. to be contd...
