Some call him GOD, while others call him SELFISH, he is the one and only Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, the five feet five inch run-machine, who has more than 60 records to his name. His retirement from ODIs has sent the whole nation (even his detractors) in tears. When I took a look on his 24-year old career, there was a special onus on me to choose his top five IDPF (Intensive Display by a Player on the Field) Innings in ODIs. It was not at all an easy task to choose from 463 matches that he played in these years but when I sorted out the list, I was surprised to find that out that in his top 5 IDPF performances, 4 came out of his bat and 1 with the bowl and in those 4 batting performances, he didn’t have a century in 2 (IDPF is not about scoring centuries or taking 5 wickets).
So let us have a look at his 5 IDPF performances:
1. Sandstorm in Sharjah: The 143 vs the Aussies in Sharjah back in 1998 is the top IDPF prformance by Sachin Tendulkar. If you remember the match, India had to chase 276 in 46 overs and needed 241 to qualify for the finals. Given the scenario in those days, it was difficult for a team to chase anything over 200 in One-Dayers those days. Sachin Tendulkar lead India from the front with 9 hits to the fence and 5 hits out of the park. He scored 143 runs in India’s 250 (57.2 percent of India’s runs). India lost the match but eventually qualified for the finals and won the tournament and Sachin scored 134 runs in the finals.
2. Kill me first if you want to win: It was a day before my birthday and India has a very bad record in November. Chasing a mountain of 351 runs to win vs the Aussies in Hyderabad in 2010, India set off the mark with rapid-fire fours by Sachin Tendulkar. If you look at the scorecard, only 4 out of India’s 11 players crossed 10 runs, Sachin scored 175 in India’s 3 runs-loss (50.43 percent of India’s runs) and the second highest being Suresh Raina (59 off 59 balls). So it was easily a Sachin show at Hyderabad.
3. Its NOW or NEVER: Commonwealth Bank Series, 2nd Final, Brisbane 2008. India had already won the first final by defeating Australia riding on Sachin’s unbeaten 117 and were close to winning a World Championship for the first time since 1986 and it was a now or never for the Indian team. Sachin scored 91 runs (35.27 percent of India’s runs) on a bouncy Brisbane track and batted close to 3 hours as India won by 9 runs. The second top score by an Indian player was Yuvraj Singh’s 38.
4. I am more dangerous with the bowl: India were playing Pakistan in Kochi on 2nd April 2005. After Sachin failed with the bat, India piled on 281 runs but to their dismay the Pakistani openers had their guns blazing before sluttering from 45-0 to 64-4. But someone had to strike and remove the dangerous middle-order of Pakistan consisting of mighty Inzamam-Ul-Haq and Pakistan almost recovered to 112-4 before Sachin struck with the bowl. He went on to pick up a 5 wicket haul for 50 runs in 10 overs that comprised of a maiden over also.
5. The nervous 90 at the Oval: India had to chase 317 vs England to stay in the series. Already 3-2 behind and a mountain to climb, the Indian openers that comprised Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly had their guns blazing and scored more than 6 RPO to bring up 150 runs by the 22nd over that set the platform for the middle order to win the match. Sachin hit 16 fours and 1 six in his fast-track innings of 94. India won the match and levelled the series.
-All rights reseverd by the author
No comments:
Post a Comment