Ponting is a few tiers below Sachin.
The let down with Indian cricket has been lack of quality fast bowling, fielding and players becoming celebrities which has led to a lack of application. Australia has always trumped in those departments.
Sachin Tendulkar
- Thread starter amolbhatia50k
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Ponting is a few tiers below Sachin.
The let down with Indian cricket has been lack of quality fast bowling, fielding and players becoming celebrities which has led to a lack of application. Australia has always trumped in those departments.
Easier to be great in a worse team? So it's easier to come in at 10/2 trailing by 400 runs, with the whole country thinking your a God and if you don't perform the game is lost, than come in at 200/2 ahead by 300 runs and you being the best player in a team full of brilliance, and even if you do get out someone else will come out and perform anyway.
This is an eye opener.
How does quality of teammates affect batting performances in cricket? If you're going to talk about pressure don't forget Ponting had his own pressures. Captain of the number 1 team, expectations to win every game, the knowledge that if you go through an extended bad spell you could be dropped in favor of the talent not in the XI. Anyway teammates do not affect a batsmen whatsoever imo.Well I believe everyone is a few tiers below Sachin! So I just remove those useless tiers which have noone in them
We've had lots of problems. Till fairly recently we were plagued with poor fielding, a celebrity culture like the English football team, immense pressure to perform, corrupt governance, pitches that never favored pacers and hence a lack of quality pacers and batsman who could face it.
It is slowly changing but players like Dravid and Tendulkar are gems that have come through despite these issues through sheer ability and mental strength. But it is changing and hence you're seeing fitter players coming through and more pacers than spinners.
Sadly, in the last decade we've had a lot of talented pacers coming through but not nurtured those talents. Only Zaheer seems to be fulfilling his talent. The rest all fell away at some point. Real shame.
It does though, Tendulkar for some time literally carried the Indian Batting which meant that he had to play with more pressure as compared to Ponting. One rash shot and he knew that his whole team would crumble plus as Amol Says the expectations of 1 Billion People who believe that Every time Sachin goes to bat, he will score a century surely affected his batting. Ponting, on the other hand had both the best batting and bowling at his disposal, and he knew even if he got out there are many capable players to take the pressure.
You only have to take Indian's series to Australia in 1999 as an example, no other batsmen except Sachin coped with the Australian Bowling.
Is it a co-incidence that his best years are coming when our team has become much stronger as compared to our previous teams, I think not!
Especially in ODI's, our team is a whole less dependent on Sachin and that's why he has been playing so freely as compared to the previous years.
Note: I'm not undermining Ponting's efforts as he is an amazing player but to say that pressure and quality of team-mates doesn't affect batting is wrong.
KM has replied aptly. Ponting himself would admit that the pressure he's faced has been nothing compared to what Sachin has. Sachin has literally had to carry his team. Imagine the whole nation and teams hopes pinned on you and you're expected to do it everytime because of who you are. It's an incredible pressure. It's like all the pressure on one man in the English football team, it doesn't happen but imagine if it did.
Also I do believe Pontings prime has come at a time when bowling attacks have weakened in world cricket. Sachin at his prime faced bowlers line Warne, Mcgrath, Akram, Ambrose etc. During Pontings peak, the best bowlers in the world were..... Actually I'm not sure really. Only South Africa have had a decent bowling attack during his best years I think. Pakistan have been hit and miss since the days of Akram and Waqar. Same with Sehwag, his prime too has come when pitches have been flatter and bowlers not as good.
Chasing 360 in 2003 was always going to be a huge task. Indian bowling spearhead Zaheer lost the plot in the first over in that match. And it would have taken a phenomenal effort to overhaul that target. Despite being i the finals that day, India including sachin probably had the best chance till date when the world cup was hosted in the subcontinent in 96. India threw that match away in that semi final match against Sri lanka. Surely the lankans played well but India was in superb position to win that match and possibly the finals against the Australians in our backyard.
Yup. We actually lost the final against Australia in the very first over when Zaheer fired the ball in every direction his eye could go. We were never winning after the terrible bowling start. Sachin had dragged us into the final through some majestic displays, expecting him to win that final for us was a bit too much, even for him.
I was just watching some highlights of the 1996 world cup final, and it's just incredible how after that freak dismissal of Sachin the rest just crumble. Shameful.
But Tendulkar has been playing for the past 2 decades!
Prior to Saurav and Dravid, we had a very very very inconsistent Azharuddin, Sidhu, Jadeja, Srikant, Shastri, Kambli, Manjrekar etc playing alongside Sachin...
People just completely forget that whole era of Sachin when even amongst those names, that boy was the best batsman 1992 World Cup onwards for us ...
Pretty sure we got knocked out in the semis after the match was forfeited due to crowd trouble at the Eden Gardens?
Yeah I meant semi final. Bugger.
And what a tournament Sachin had then as well in 1996!
averaged 87 in that World Cup in 7 innings, was top scorer..
and what a year 1998 was for him, never seen a batsman play like he did, especially those 2 innings in Sharjah against the Aussies already mentioned by someone on here..
averaged 87 in that World Cup in 7 innings, was top scorer..
and what a year 1998 was for him, never seen a batsman play like he did, especially those 2 innings in Sharjah against the Aussies already mentioned by someone on here..
And very rarely has our batting line up matched Australia. In fact when Australia had THAT team, we never got close. We had skillful individuals who had more natural ability but as a batting line up there was never any comparison. The Aussies had a long batting order where their keeper was as good as any regular batsman and a tail that would give proper support when required. And they had batsman who could deal with most circumstances and pitches.
Even at our best, until maybe the latter parts of this past decade, we've been high on individual brilliance but not had more than the sum of it's parts. Besides, its' harder for any batting line up when your bowling is weaker. The australian batting's job was easier when they had Warne, Mcgrath and co. tearing through teams and setting up the match nicely.
yet another ton..
96 and 03. He's an unbelievable player at the world cups. With a good bowling line up and more support to him in batting we probably would have won both the form he was in.
Genius. He gave me and I'm sure many other Indian's so much happiness growing up.
That Sharjah innings
The 143* (it was that rigth?) in the final was some stunning batting.
The 143* (it was that rigth?) in the final was some stunning batting.
That Sharjah innings
The 143* (it was that rigth?) in the final was some stunning batting.
142 was in the match before the final when he made us qualify for the final ..he did get out though..Was a desert storm that day, and play had stopped for the storm to pass by..innings became known as the desert storm..
and then he made another century a couple of days later in the final to lead us to victory...that was on April 24th, his Birthday ...
both fantastic innings...
The innings in the semi's was one to savour. His hits down the pitch over the bowlers head were unbelievable.
Brilliantly.
Mcgrath and him had some of the greatest contests. It was always close. Sometimes Mcgrath won, sometimes Sachin just ripped into him. But it was simply a delight to watch.
You seriously don't remember Warne vs Tendulkar? It was hugely hyped. But Sachin tore him apart. Treated him with complete disdain. Warne actually made a statement that he got nightmares of Sachin coming down the wicket and bashing him all over the park. He recently came out with a statement claiming it was a joke (which is probably true) but I really wouldn't be surprised if he did given the way Sachin played him.
The fact that Sachin was Australia's nemesis in the era where they had one of the all time great attacks says a lot. There were times when it was Sachin vs Australia, and he usually saved his best for them.
Doesn't have a 300+ score in tests and hasn't won the WC - the two biggest misses in his 20 yr career.
Probably the only two misses in his career, About the WC thing he can't do anything, as he has been a one man army loads of times but his team mates have let him down.
Might set one of those right tomorrow..
Yup. To be honest don't care much for the triple hundred though. A double hundred is usually more useful than a triple hundred as the latter is usually in a drawn game.
FFS Don't jinx it!
I think the bigger challenge is Dhoni + the tail hanging around him.
Yea, this is actually the first time in a match that a triple hundred would benefit a team in a match I've watched.. 300 from Sachin would set it up brilliantly for us.
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It would. But frankly I'd like to believe that we can do it even without him doing it. I want to see Dhoni and the lower order step up a bit.
Was just thinking about this. I don't know how I'd react the day he retires. It's unimaginable really. He'll be remembered by future generation as the greatest ever IMO.
Greatest ever 5ft 4 inch batsmen?
Yes, also greatest ever of any height, weight or receding hairline.
You're off your trolley.
Greatest 5ft 4inch player though, I'll give you that.
Still think the likes of Lara, Ponting and Vaughan at their peaks were better.
Lara and Ponting at their peaks were better. Test match at least, give Lara the supporting cast Tendulkar/Ponting have had and his average would probably be 60+.
Richards is head and shoulders above any batsmen I've seen but Lara at his best got quite close.
Sachin has more centuries than Lara/Vaughan, has been at the top of his game more than Lara and Vaughan, has been going at it longer than them both....but most importantly..despite playing more, he has a higher average than them both too!
God knows what he has to do he is the best batsman to have ever graced the game in the modern era..
The last 20 years have been all him, be it ODIs or Tests.
God knows what he has to do he is the best batsman to have ever graced the game in the modern era..
The last 20 years have been all him, be it ODIs or Tests.
He's the very best. He's been the best in ODI's, he's been the best in tests. He's scored the most runs, the most centuries, been the most consistent, done it for the longest period, been magnificent in world cups, toyed with the worlds greatest team, taken apart the best spinner ever and faced probably ten times the pressure anyone else has.
He will be remembered as the greatest IMO. Bradman is someone I don't count because he played in some alien era of cricket which was just too different which was nothing like the game today.
Sachin has dominated world cricket when the standard has been at it's very highest. In fact the only reason his average isn't 60+ is because of those three years he relatively struggled with so many injuries, and that's only because he's been playing since he was 16!
I wonder if any cricketer will ever face the kind of pressure he has, ever again. This is the most cricket crazy nation and I can't see us being so reliant on one individual again for a long time. I have no idea how he dealt with it.
He played on flat decks most of the time. He's not even better than Lara or Ponting let alone Richards and Bradman. He'll be remembered as the greatest, yes. . .in Amol's arse.
He's WUMing, pretty poorly I must say, and you're still taking the bait.