In my previous post on Sachin Tendulkar, I mentioned how his first ODI century was an innings of two halves – the first fifty coming up in blistering fashion and the other slow in comparison. The second part was inexplicable because it seemed like Tendulkar decided to cut out his strokes and play it safe to get his century. This was undoubtedly true of his first century because he had gone dozens of innings without one and so he had to crack that barrier.
What struck me was that in many other innings, especially in Tests, I have seen Tendulkar behave like this. He would be playing perfectly normal, making strokes and dominating the bowlers. But as he approached his century, he would retreat into a shell, start defending playable balls and take singles off hittable balls. Quite often, he would even get himself in a pickle as the bowler starts beating him.
But when you have watched so many Tendulkar hundreds, the problem is whether a few such centuries remains in your mind and you forget all the centuries he made while belting the bowlers. For example, if I am correct, he once reached 100 in a Test match with three consecutive fours. So it could be a selective memory from my part.
Tifosi Guy suggested to take all of Tendulkar’s ODI centuries and check the below-80 strike rate and the 80-to-100 strike rate. So I went to Cricinfo and tried to find the data. Unfortunately, the ball-by-ball scores are only available for 15 matches. Also, sometimes we won’t get an exact 80-to-100 either, because he may have reached the 80′s via a boundary.
Anyway, the data is inconclusive, though there is some evidence of Tendulkar slowing down. In 6 of the 15 innings (40%), Tendulkar had a slower strike rate between 80 and 100 than his strike rate to reach 80. The worst example was his taking 30 balls to reach 100 from 80, when he had previously hit 80 from 87 balls.
On the other hand, he has moved very quickly too at times, hitting 15 runs from 9 balls, 19 from 13, 17 from 13 and so on. Except for that 20 from 30, he has scored the runs at a 80+ strike rate, even if they are sometimes slower than what he was going at. In most of these examples, India’s cause is not harmed.
Hey Krish, are you on a anti Sachin spree ? No he is not selfish when he nears 100. No other batsman in world has won more matches than his centuries. Its not correct to say that he gets selfish.
You want to have a stats contest ? i can count you innumerable innings when he has adjusted to situations and slowed / speeded up for team’s cause.
Sam, I was just exploring the subject on Sachin’s centuries. As I mentioned in my post, there is not much evidence and besides it has never put India in much harm.
Fair point Krish. I cannot go into a per innings count but in contemporary Indian cricket, I can think of only two batsmen who qualify as 100% team men and NOT selfish.
1. Rahul Dravid (in one instance out bowled reverse sweeping part timer Imran Farhat in Rawalpindi when on 270)
2. Viru Sehwag – no need to give instances.
With all due respect to Sachin, I feel he has, on several occasions put his milestone in priority.
cheers
@Late Inswing, I agree about Dravid and Sehwag. Among the recent retirees, I would also place Kumble and Ganguly. What do you think?
will sehwag plays slowly by changing his gears when wickets are falling in a quick succession
or when the team really neads him to hang out in the crease when it is difficult to handle the new ball by the middle order – no
when india is in follow on will sehwag plays slowly with out giving wicket-no
will he drags the bat on the crease when he is running you will find enormous examples watching this-no
will he convert the singles in to two’s like sachin and dhoni – no
he ll throw his wicket as if there is no importance of the wicket
A TEAM PLAYER SHOULD CHANGE HIS INNINGS ACCORDINGLY TO THE TEAMS SITUATION
Krish mate – applause ! I had just made a suggestion and you’ve done some research into it. Good work mate.
Well I stand corrected then – if India’s cause isn’t harmed then I guess I( we) shouldn’t find too much fault !
Still though, can’t explain why the need to slow down
@Tifosi Guy, wish I had more data and the computing power to compare this with other players. There might be some interesting trends there.
Kumble, yes certainly. Who can forget the bandaged jaw.
But I was looking at batsmen.
Saurav – at one stage in the ODI’s I had a feeling he got into the centuries race. But in tests, I have seen him put team above self on many key occasions.
…as I write this, dart thrower gets the lumberjack stumped – by another lumberjack and in comes the crab.
Sachin does slow down when he nears his century, sometimes inexclipicably. It has been for the team’s cause only on a few occasions. On other occasions, I got the feeling he distinctly played for his landmark. This might sound harsh to a lot of people here, but I guess it all depends on how much you idolize him. Sometimes idolatry can make logic take a backseat. I dont idolize Sachin, but I respect his achievements nonetheless.
Refer ODI no 1640. Sachin scored 101 from 140 balls. It was a most laborious effort, and at one point of time he took what seemed like an eternity to get to his 100 even though India needed quick runs at that stage. To judge this innings you need to have watched the match, especially between the 40th and 47th over when Sachin got out. All reports praise Tendulkar for this efort, but in reality it wasnt what India needed. Till about 80 runs he played very good cricket. And if he had got out at that very stage, India still would have got to round about the same score. Sachin held on to his wicket without taking the least bit of risk, as if after completing his century he would take take the attack apart. That never happened.
Good point, K, about having had to watch the match to understand the criticism. I cannot believe that anyone who watched the match would not have felt that he deliberately slowed down.
“In most of these examples, India’s cause is not harmed.”
I think this is what is key here.
@umair.qazi
Ok. Fine. I have two points.
1. Just because India’s cause is not harmed, how does that justify his slow innings?
2. You say that India’s cause was not harmed despite Sachin’s slow innings. As a direct consequence of this statement, can we conclude that the reason India did well despite Sachin’s slow innings was because other players fared better and covered up for Sachin’s mediocre innings? Then dont other players deserve credit for the victory more than Sachin does?
Dear K, Krishna and Late Inswing I appriciate your research.
But for your knowledge, till date Sachin Tendulkar has struck 43 ODI centuries, out of which India has won 31 matches and 1 match was abandoned. I think these figures are enough. Sachin has helped India win(especially ODI) more than any other player. I still remember India had reached Semi finals in 1996 World Cup because of Sachin’s batting. In Semi final also India was favorite till Sachin was on crease. Once he got out India couldn’t reach the total of 250 also. The same way Sachin was responsible for taking India to finals in 2003 World Cup. In finals we know how bad our bowlers bowled. Also in 1999 World Cup Sachin returned to India because of his father’s demise and India lost match against weak Zimbabwe. Which lead to India’s exit from World Cup. There any many occasions like 2000 Sharjah Series, recent Austrailia tour, etc.
Give me a single name in ODI who has helped his team win so frequently.
I agree Rahul is better Tet Player than Sachin. I also agree Viru, Ganguly, Kumble have served for India. But have they consistently done so? Viru plays well for couple of months and then in next four months he struggles to reach 50 also. You can’t neglect a person’s contributions for few failures.
With due respect to other players, I think Sachin is the best ODI player without a doubt.
Pramod, thanks for stopping by. I agree with you that Sachin has contributed to a lot of victories on a consistent basis. The only thing frustrating sometimes has been his slowdown near his century. But as you can see from the research, it has not been a big hindrance to India’s efforts.
y dont you conduct your research on others say sehwags unecesssary agression..uh…dat has never been a hindrance to india’s cause, as per your statistics im sure..
Are you a jerk having no sense of cricket!!!
As long as the overall strike rate is that of 85 and an average of 45 for a career spanning 20 years and 400+ matches, you should not be making such a rubbish comment. Looks like the author of this bloody article has got nothing between his ears.
PS. The SR is more than any other batsmen having 10000+ runs and an average of 40 including Lara, Kallis and Ponting.
Also, 6 centuries in tournament finals and India won all of them.
Tendulkar is a selfish loser. Open your eyes, Indians!
also the fact except that sachin does miss a lot matches in ODI because of his injury, also lot of matches abandoned where he could have scored lot than his total tally of 17386 to may be 17700+.. even if atleast 8 to 9 of those matches, them if held, he could have scored 300-350 more.. 17700 then.. like 2 in last england series in india in 2008 november, last ODI in EDEN infact on 8th feb 2007 against the same opposition like day after tomorrow i.e. SRI LANKA, last ODI against australia last november 11, 2009, 1st ODI against SA in 2006 in SA — like these there are so many where sachin was available but match did not happen.. so sachchu missed out lot of matches and runs and a few 100′s too may be, not only because of his injury but also due to bad weather or match abandoned due to some other unavoidable reason(like 26/11 last year)..
Do we really need to discuss this (being Sachin’s lateness near century) here?
Everybody has his own way playing cricket, so has Sachin. Sehwag completes his century with boundaries because that suits him. If he starts play cautiously near century (or anytime in his innings) he’ll surely get himself out. He can’t play safely. Many a times he gets a life early on his innings and makes centuries. Just Imagine if he gets out on that early occasion won’t this effect India’s progress in that match?
Sachin has been making runs with a steady strike rate around 86 since he started playing cricket. Let’s compare with others who started with a bang and now are slower than Sachin. Dhoni had a strike rate of 100 in his early days and now he’s making runs with a strike rate of 80. Off-course Sehwag is exception. Ganguly and Dravid had a strike rate around 75 throughout their career. Yuvi and Raina also have a strike rate just near 90.
I had a memory of that match when he made 101 against Sri Lanka. (Someone here explained his 101 from 140 balls against Sri Lanka, India lost that match but Sachin was named MOM, why?) Look at the scorecard and other’s contribution in that match and you’ll get the answer why Sachin played slowly in there.
India have never won an ODI tournament without Sachin’s presence. It’s nothing like Sachin has played in all those tournaments. No, he was absent in many tournaments and rest all, Viru, Yuvi, Dhoni, raina, Ganguly, dravid were playing there, but could they won a single tournament on their own?
Look at Sachin who almost single handedly won many tournaments (4 centuries in finals excluding 2 against minnows and won all those), his 8 MOM awards in tournaments finals, 9 MOS in those tournaments. What else one would want from a human being? There was time when people had a thinking “Sachin out India out”. Ok, things have changed a little on Yuvi, Viru, gambhir, Dhoni and raina’s arriving but still we need Sachin in the team and recent tournament has proved this again
do u think u have all the stat. of the master?do u know his average in the tournament final is around 60?is playing according to the situtation is offense?sachin scored 101 (140),did u see d match?did u remember d scorecard of d others in that very match?do u know he has scored around 2000 runs at an avg. of 50+ in the tournament like world cup?
i can ask u thousands of question lyk dat.
let me tell u some thing..
1.u talking about sehwag,ganguly,rahul,yuvi etc. how many runs they scored against australia in odis?
dey r nowhere near sachin.
2.u talking about sehwags quick scoring. if sachin,rahul is not there can sehwag play his natural game?i tell u he can’t.
3.dont u know he carried the whole indian team on his shoulder almost 4 a decade.in the mid ninties wasn’t it a one man army?
4.u talking about slowing down in the ninties…i think u r a good statistisian,havn’t u observed dat whenever sachin got a 100 in an inn. 95% of dat inn. he ended up with a strike rate of around 86?????? is it slowing down towards 100?????????
5.i m sure u haven’t seen his 175 in hyderabad.do u know how many balls he took?i willn’t tell u. u willn’t believe me. he took only 141 deliveries.u know india lost d match by 3 runs.do u know y????because sachin got out when india required only 17 off 16 balls with jadeja,harbhajan,zaheer,nehra was available with 2 overs of batting power play left.wat does it indicate???we need sachin till d end,don’t we?
6.did u see the 1st inn. of d 1st test against bangladesh recently????
what else can we expect from a human being?????????????????????????????
i have so many thinx left 2day.more when a response will come…..
Tifosi Guy suggested to take all of Tendulkar’s ODI centuries and check the below-80 strike rate and the 80-to-100 strike rate.
A significant portion of the first 80 runs would have been scored in the powerplays. Hence a better comparison would be comparing the SR between 80 -100 to the SR of the runs scored in the post powerplay period.
@Late Inswing
Sachin is the Only batsman in test cricket to hit 4 hundreds with a six!! u know that?! huh?!!
hey ,i appreciate your research but any player accept sehwag is bound to slow down between 80 and 100 since getting a 100 is something special in international cricket
Hey Friends, Stop doing research on weather Sachin is selfish or not? If you want to know he is selfish or not towards his century, just play some season cricket match and try to bat well and get near the century (even fifty is fine). Then you will get the feeling of how important to get some milestone in cricket match and how get nervous every time you get near to it.
Every player tackle with this nervousness differently, Some wanted to get through it as soon as possible like Sehwag who try to heat six or four when he is near to century or play cautiously to get through his nervousness. No matter how many matches you play, this thing never goes away. this dose’t mean you are selfish. Please think like a cricketer to judge cricketers
@whatsoever
did you have any sense, the authours suggestions are good , the quantity is not the matter here, match winning is the need here….
you can see this in every case and while hurring for running to keep strike or singles at last balls
@Rushikesh
season cricket mathes are not the case of international cricket ,, team winning is most needed than a century
for eg take viru at 99, 199 , 299 .. he also needs century . but he is not selfish
this is the conclusion masterblaster is the most selfish batsman
@chiranjit
in hydrabad match you can able to find he waste too much of balls to cross 17000
@Naveen
ooooo , they won t20 world cup
if sachin is there means , he get fiftys from fifty balls and last he stay in the crease for whole match,,, we never get the cup
@whatsoever
look at the world cup final 2003
@ozzie_wizard
he we dont need a sadhu like sachin , we need a bang like sehwag
JUst look at the website http://www.sachinandcritics.com and stop these blunders mr sharma. dont become a fool by saying blunders…
boom boom boom yusuf boo boo sachin.
sachin tendulkar may have scored so many runs but are they reallu useful from teams point of view and if so then y india didnt win more matches.
u all know sachin has scored the most runs in ODI but thats coz he had played the most ODI & the fact that u must not know is he has lost the most ODI’s i.e 193(the most by any player).
sachin is playing from last 20 yrs but he never took india to no.1 position in ODI’s on himself it was dhoni who did it & dhoni did not bcoz of his 50+ avg or 90+ srike rate but the way to take ur team to victory against good teams.
& the reason behind is not bcoz dhoni come at 5 or 6 but bcoz he has that ability to do it he has also showed it by coming on no.3 where he scored 183 off 145 against lanka with 10 sixes coz india desparately needed them.
tendulkar have never won a single world cup.
whereas sehwa,dhoni,yuvi etc. did it once.
tendulkar lost 193 ODI’s & won 222 so its nearly he loses 1 & wins 1.
whereas symonds won 152 & lost 37 .
now calculate the win to loss ration u will know symonds was 4 times better than tendulkar with respect to teams need.
ponting played 100 matches than sachin but won 25 more matches than sachin. now dnt say its coz his team is better ever our team will be better if we throw the selfish sachin out of it.
india only can win world cup widout the selfish man which did happened in t-20 2007.
v dnt want sum1 to pile runs for himself v want sum1 to win the game by hooks or by crooks like sehwag, yuvi,dhoni,ponting,symonds,mcgrath,gilly etc. r doing for their teams.
no doubt sachin is talented than any other on earth but he utililezes his talent for himself & not for team.
take an example of 3rd IPL final match where sachin stayed till the 15th over to ensure chennai’s win coz when sachin got out the match was out of their reach moreover he didnt send pollard earlier & thats bcoz he just play to lose …..he feels so happy to lose that he can do anythng for dat.
finally our team needs match winners he may or may not be a run machine but clicking at the right time is important than to score on unnecessary occasion.
the person who comes with an aim of century can only have that much of century but a person who comes with the aim of winning may not have a single century but his team will win more matches for sure.
& sachin comes with the aim of only centuries & this needs not be given proof as everbody knows he slows down after 80.
a pure batsman when batting with a tailender needs to understand that he has to keep strike with him for maximum balls like mike hussey has done this lots of time …once with mcgrath he had patnership of 100+ in test ………even jayasuriya scored 100+ for 10th wicket in test…………..we also seen dhoni doing this in test when he bats with tailenders he goes for hitting sixes to score as much as possible before india get all out…………..if want more examples of this u can contact me but sachin never do this he play normally with tailenders also…….he give them strike equally coz he has nothing to do with india getting all out but he should remain not out to maintain a gud avg.
it happened with india lots of times & also with the mumbai indians.
sachin tendulkar may have scored so many runs but are they really useful from teams point of view and if so then y india didnt win more matches.
u all know sachin has scored the most runs in ODI but thats coz he had played the most ODI & the fact that u must not know is he has lost the most ODI’s i.e 193(the most by any player).
sachin is playing from last 20 yrs but he never took india to no.1 position in ODI’s on himself it was dhoni who did it & dhoni did it not bcoz of his 50+ avg or 90+ srike rate but the way to take ur team to victory against good teams.
& the reason behind it is not bcoz dhoni come at 5 or 6 but bcoz he has that ability to do it he has also showed it by coming on no.3 where he scored 183 off 145 against lanka with 10 sixes coz india desparately needed them & scoring 148 against pakistan at no.3 to take india home.
tendulkar have never won a single world cup.
whereas sehwag,dhoni,yuvi etc. did it once.
tendulkar lost 193 ODI’s & won 222 so its nearly he loses 1 & wins 1.
whereas symonds won 152 & lost 37 .
now calculate the win to loss ratio u will know symonds was 4 times better than tendulkar with respect to teams need.
ponting played 100 matches less than sachin but won 25 more matches than sachin. now dnt say its coz his team is better even our team will be better if we throw the selfish sachin out of it.
india only can win world cup widout the selfish man which did happened in t-20 2007.
v dnt want sum1 to pile runs for himself v want sum1 to win the game by hooks or by crooks like sehwag, yuvi,dhoni,ponting,symonds,mcgrath,gilly etc. r doing for their teams.
no doubt sachin is talented than any other on earth but he utililezes his talent for himself & not for team.
take an example of 3rd IPL final match where sachin stayed till the 15th over to ensure chennai’s win coz when sachin got out the match was out of their reach moreover he didnt send pollard earlier & thats bcoz he just play to lose …..he feels so happy to lose that he can do anythng for dat.
finally our team needs match winners he may or may not be a run machine but clicking at the right time is important than to score on unnecessary occasion.
the person who comes with an aim of century can only have that much of century but a person who comes with the aim of winning may not have a single century but his team will win more matches for sure.
& sachin comes with the aim of only centuries & this needs not be given proof as everbody knows he slows down after 80.
a pure batsman when batting with a tailender needs to understand that he has to keep strike with him for maximum balls like mike hussey has done this lots of time …once with mcgrath he had patnership of 100+ in test ………even jayasuriya scored 100+ for 10th wicket in test…………..we also seen dhoni doing this in test when he bats with tailenders he goes for hitting sixes to score as much as possible before india get all out…………..if want more examples of this u can contact me but sachin never do this he play normally with tailenders also…….he give them strike equally coz he has nothing to do with india getting all out but he should remain not out to maintain a gud avg.
it happened with india lots of times & also with the mumbai indians.
There is no doubt that Sachin is a great batsman with technic, foot work, style of play but value of his runs to the teams victory is ??????? 0. Once he makes maiden against srilanka in the 42 nd over with 10 wickets in hand. Is Sehwag does like this? or Can Sachin hit a six when he is on 95s , 195s and 295s?. Sachin played really well but the benifit goes only to his account not to the team. This is not accepted by many but that is the real fact. He is selfish and not a match winner.