How Sachin outscores Bradman – Sachin vs Sir Don
In the year 1932 English captain Douglas Jardine, invented a method to stop the greatest batsman of all time, Sir Donald Bradman by using a bowling method called Bodyline. Something which really worked for Jardine and his boys resulting to England winning the Ashes and Sir Don failing (as per his standard). Exactly after 60 years in 2002, another English captain Nasser Hussain, tried his own formula to stop the greatest batsman of modern times Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, by bowling outside the leg stump (a negative theory). Interestingly both the Captains were born in India, Jardine in Mumbai and Hussain in Chennai. Both of them were successful in their mission as Bradman couldn’t score even 400 runs (at the strike rate of 75) in the series as compared to 974 runs in previous Ashes. England regained the Ashes whereas Hussain too was partially successful by not letting Tendulkar to score with his regular strike rate however he still managed to score 307 runs with an average of 76+ and Hussain’s tactics did frustrate Sachin. It was 1st time in his career that he got stumped in Test Cricket. 
Both Sachin and Sir Don, had considerable capability looking at their different methods of run scoring and the speed with which they score.
All these years no other captain had aimed one single batsman to stop from scoring runs, except Hussain and Jardine. In 1996 when Bradman told a Sports channel “I saw him playing on television and was struck by his technique, so I asked my wife to come look at him. Now I never saw myself play, but I feel that this bloke is playing much the same as I used to play, and she looked at him on Television and said yes, there is a similarity between the two: his compactness, technique, stroke production, it all seemed to gel, he is a little bonzer” (it was still an early phase of Sachin’s career), many didn’t agree with it and former Australian Captain and legendary commentator, Richie Benaud said in one of the interview in 1998 that he was not convinced with Sir Don’s statement but when he saw Sachin played like that in Sharjah, he too started believing in it. The statement came when Sachin was touring England with Indian team and almost everyone around the world predicted that Sachin will be the 1st man in test cricket to score 50 centuries and 15000 runs (he’s just 1500 runs and 3 centuries behind those predictions). Apart from playing in similar fashion, both Sachin and Sir Don batted at lower down in their 1st test match (Sachin at 6 and Bradman at 7), both couldn’t score above 20 runs in their 1st test match innings. When it comes to test of raw courage, Bradman’s average just plummeted in the bodyline series whereas Sachin started off his career facing world’s fastest and furious bowlers like Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram and Imran Khan.
In the year 1998 he was judged second none to other than Sir Don Bradman by every Australian after those 2 back to back hundreds at Sharjah. In next few years almost every Cricket expert believed that Sachin is next to Sir Don, but in last 1 and half year, former cricketers started saying that he has passed Sir Don and he is above Sir Don. Sir Richard Hadlee rated Tendulkar even higher than Don Bradman, considering Indian batsman’s staggering success in both the long and short formats of the game. And when Sachin became the 1st man on earth to score double hundred against South Africa early this year, the same captain who asked his bowler to bowl negative line to frustrate Sachin Tendulkar, rated Sachin above Bradman.
Unarguably the most worshiped cricketer, Sachin Tendulkar has been rated above every other batsmen/cricketer. Though that doesn’t mean Sir Don was less great but what Sachin had been doing since 1989, no one else has been able to do in their short/long career. This is something Indian fans had felt quite a long time back.
So how does Sachin Tendulkar outscores Sir Don?
1.Pressure
Tendulkar plays under huge pressure. 1 billion+ people expecting you to perform in each and every match. To perform consistently well for 20 years as per expectations is just Brilliant! Bradman never had such pressure in his whole career apart from bodyline series and in his last innings against England. And just look what pressure can do. His average which was usually over 100 in maximum series came down to just 52 in bodyline series. When the whole world was watching him to score just 4 runs in his last innings he couldn’t even score those runs. This is what pressure is all about. And Tendulkar goes through such pressure in each every match. Even the matches against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. With one failure public, media, everyone in India starts criticizing the Greats of Indian cricket. Still he is performing consistently. Isn’t this amazing?
2.Fitness
Bradman played 52 tests in 20 years whereas Sachin has played 162 tests in 20 years. In Bradman’s time not many matches were played. Players easily got 7-8 days of gap in between 2 tests of a series. In one year only 4-5 tests were played. There were no one dayers. Nowadays there are too much of ODI’s. Once a series starts, you don’t get any chance to take rest. 5 ODI get completed in 12-13 days and as soon as ODI series is over, the Test series starts and between tests only 3 days of gap. No rest for players & they have to play each test and ODI. In Bradman’s times you could get 7-8 days for rest & not only that, Bradman played some tests which were of just 3 days, and in almost every test he played, there was a rest day in between, so fitness level and total numbers of matches 4-5 and look at today’s cricket, atleast 10 Tests and 30 ODIs each year and in ODI’s you just can’t play cricket with peace at all. After every ball you have to look at the score board, have to accelerate anytime in the innings many times from the beginning, pressure with no rest virtually ! Though he’s is playing T-20 also at domestic level, but T-20 is just not the cricket. (You don’t have plan when you go out to bat, just go and hit). It is because of the no. of Tests played now that we can note a remarkable achievement from Sachin who had already scored 24 Test hundreds before his 28th birthday. This in no way undermines Bradman’s score of amassing whopping 452 runs in just 415 minutes!!! But that was precisely because the over rates during that time were far superior than now.
3. Position of Batting
Bradman usually came at no.3 or no.4 and mostly when the score were 176 for 1 or 217 for 2. No pressure!! Just play the natural game and dominated the bowling. Unlike Sachin, Bradman had some really good openers from the start of his career. Woodfull & Ponsford had career average of 45+, Sachin usually came at no.4 & mostly when India lost both the openers with the scoreboard reading something 20-2!!! And then this best batsman of all time rescues the team. In Onedayers Sachin opens and starts blazing guns from the beginning and then steady in middle overs and again all guns blazing in last 10 overs. And at 37, if you are still able to do after playing 20 years, then it’s surely a remarkable thing !
4. Opposition
Bradman played mostly against England and he got used to that bowling thats why scored over 5000 runs with an average of around 92. One series against each minnows [India, SouthAfrica and WestIndies were new in cricket that time] and scored heavily against them. Never played in Indian Sub-Continent against Indian spinners. Playing at Indian pitches is never been easy for any batsman.Nowdays Australian thinks Ricky Ponting is the best batsman after Bradman from Australia. Look his record in India! Sachin’s average in Australia is above 54. A batsman is perfect when he scores against really class bowlings. Excluding Larwood Bradman never played any quality bowlers. (and the other 2 were CV Grimmett & RR Lindwall, who belong to his own country) He never played against a bowler who bowls something like 160kmph+ on hard fast pitch where batsman hardly gets a chance to think of what should be played, whereas Sachin played against Ambrose-Walsh-Bishop, Wasim-Waqar-Akhtar, McGrath-Lee-Gilespie, Donald-Pollock, Warne-Murli and many more. The swing was unknown during that time, Sachin has to play reverse swing, which was no one could even imagined.
The fielder shattering stumps from the boundary was unheard in Bradman’s time. Just see the class of fielding nowadays, Rhodes, Ponting, Gibbs. The standard of fielding is far much better than it was in that time!
5. Technology
In Bradman’s time it was not easy to pick one’s weakness just standing at slips or point. That’s why Jardine had to use the theory of bowling on chest height to stop Bradman from scoring runs. Its true that then there was no such equipment like helmet, arm-guards to save you but then apart from Bodyline series there were no such instance where batsmen had to really save themselves from truly fast bowling. Interestingly, though Sachin plays few shots in the air when he tries to play drives on rising delivery (thanks to Today’s technology) and many captain tried to get his wicket at the early part of his innings, Nasser Hussain tried something different to get his wicket, by not letting him to score freely against his bowlers (though Sachin still had the second best strike rate after Sehwag in that series for India).
True that the average of 99.94 is considered to be top achievement in any sport statistically, however Cricket is not just a game of averages. There are many other things which should be consider like the standard of playing cricket. Nowadays so much of technology is used so that you can take out weak areas of a particular player. The standard of fielding is just too good. The Media hype and pressure is so much. Lots of cricket played, scoring in every part of the world. Sachin not only plays role in batting but also in many other areas like Sachin can spin the bowl like Shane Warne, Sachin is never afraid of taking responsibilities. Tendulkar took the ball from Azhar and Kapil in Hero Cup Semifinal and bowled the last over and did not let South Africa to score 6 runs to win the match. Just imagine if those runs were scored. Public and Media of India would have definitely gone after the little master. And if that’s not enough he is partially playing a role of mentor/coach of Indian Cricket Team.
Finally, its unfair to compare the two batsmen of different era but then it would also be unfair to call Sir Don as the greatest batsmen of “all times”.
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Category: Ritesh's Cover drive, Sachin Zone
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At times of Sir Bradman, there were no limits for bouncers I reckon. had to play without protection, Sachin plays with thigh pad, arm pad etc. Quality of bat is way improved now. Pitches are more batsman friendly now. In 52 matches of Sir Bradman, he amassed 6996 runs with 29 centuries, whereas when compare Sachin in 162 is quite less. Sir Bradman was one of the best captain, Sachin’s captaincy? So with captaincy he had to do this, pressure was on him too.
And Sachin falls on pressure with as many times, just see how many times he has fallen in nervous nineties. A record!
@ Nikhil – Fine there no equipments, but bowlers were not as good as well, no one bowled at 160 case in those times.
Pitches have become more friendly from mid 2000 since and sachin played maximum cricket on really hard fast pitches and under prepared pitches in India where batsmen like Ponting can’t even put the bat on ball.
All those 6k+ runs came against same opposition or minnows of test cricket, in same conditions.
Average Opening Partnership was around 60 at that time
Pressure of captaincy? Bradman had one of the best team (rated as one of the greatest test teams of all time), whereas Sachin had a team of players like Doda Ganesh, Vikram Rathore, Jacob Martin and so on… with 4 match fixers as well, give the same team to Bradman, even he will come out as an average captain. So captaincy pressure has no comparison with what Sachin has even without captaincy.
In a bodyline series, one series of pressure, Bradman couldn’t win for his team, this is pressure and so his last innings where everyone expected him to score just 4 runs, and he couldn’t, just see what pressure can do.
Yeah Sachin did fail, but then Sachin did not have the liberty to play just 5 matches a year with a rest day, and playing 400+ ODI & 162+ test matches with his kind of consistency is what no one can ever match.
@Nikhil
Only a person who reaches 90 that often can fall in 90s …. so he might have fallen in 90s a little over 20 times but has crossed 90 a mind boggling 118 times
and 24 out of 118 is a very small percentage
@nikhil…u knw i hate indians who talk suck rubbish about tendulkar…i mean wat u try to prove?…u knw a ot abt cricket/ or u r not biased to say some great who does not belong to your country or may be u feel proud n joining the brand of people who feel they are unique after criticising tendulkar…i am a sachin fanatic and m proud to say that he is a jewel of INDIA.no one can be like him…he is the god….and one more thing…we would have been a minnow n world cricket if he would not have started playing cricket….barring kapil’s era we have not won anything significant without tendulkar….he has served us selflessly for 20 years n he would remain INDIA’s hero forever….
awesome post Rithesh….will share it…
Nice Attempt!!
well written
Hello everyone, first up am a Sachin fan too but I’m just proving why Sir Bradman is greater than him!
@Neetish okay if that is less than just not scoring 4 runs is very less than that.
When it comes to consistency no one’s greater than Bradman, come on he averages one century in two games.
yeah I agree Sachin only brought Indian cricket at this feat but we’ll see what will happen when he retires. I guess India will make some other sport as their fav one.
being skipper you have pressure whoever who have in the team.
@ Nikhil
Well..
1) In how many different pitches did bradman play?
2) Against how many different bowlers did he play?
3) Any negative approach to contain a batsman was not practiced those days, the first incident was the bodyline tactics, and in that series brandman’s average was just 57. While every captain came up with negative attacks against sachin, he mastered it by his sheer genius, Ask Nasser Hussain about how sachin picked the yorkers which was bowled two feet out side off stump to send the ball screeching to the mid wicket fence, when the field was 8-1
4) While we got to agree with the point of bats and other equipments being very good today, we are clearly forgetting the fielding standards and bowling standards today.
5) Aussies and england play a lot of cricket against each other and that too 5 match series, which help the players to know the conditions and the bowlers really well. Shane warne have more than 100 wickets against a england thanks to ashes.
6) There were years in sachin’s career where he played only 2 – 3 tests a year and played 30 to 40 ODIs.
7) There were no video analysis and planning done to bradman like what was done against sachin.. even till date, no batsman would ve been analysed as much as sachin is being analysed by the opposition team.
8. If speak about the captaincy, ponting too has a great record but he is one of the worst captains, and fleming don’t have such a good record and he is a far better captain. Captaincy has nothing to do with the quality of cricket, instead you should ve brought in the aspect of bowling.. How many wickets sachin has taken? How many quality wickets, he can bowl inswing, outswing, off break, leg break and googly.. and spin the ball like warne. What about bradman?
9) Bradman is a legend, no questioning that. But bringing the aspect of consistency and average and comparing with sachin is not fair, because the games, opposition, grounds everything has changed. In the 90s sachin scored a century in every 2.85 matches, which was far far ahead of the rest. Injuries played havoc and bradman never had this tight schedule which sachin had.. 185 odis and 84 test matches continuously without a break highest by any batsman ever. Bradman never toiled like that.
10) If there one aspect which no one can question is, winning matches single handedly.. In 54 ODI matches between 97 to 99, India just won 2 matches in which sachin scored less than 40 runs. And in those two matches the man of the match was kumble.. That is the story of how valuable sachin as a player to the team which he represented.
11) As person Sachin is far ahead of Don, we all know about his racist remarks against india (when he did not select greg for the indian tour). Also his ego and his clashes with australian captains like Ian and so on. Just read what he said about Ian’s family. Sachin is role model in every aspect unlike don.
Amidst all the discussion… I’ve noticed something remarkable in the pictures of the two Greats of cricket…
Look at the eyes of both… and tell me where is Sir Don looking while playing the shot and where our hero Sachin Tendulkar is looking…???
Puzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzling ???
For me it does not make any sense in drawing comparision between Don and Sachin.
Because they are from two completely different eras or I should say from two completely different worlds of cricket. Absolutely there is no level playing field.
Try to see Sachin in the era of Bradman and Bradman in the era of Sachin. You may draw blank or very little difference between the two.
There is an emotional attachment between the yester-years experts and Don like the emotional attachment between today’s experts, fans and Sachin. May be generation gap.
I have not seen Don and so I cant comment on him. I have seen Sachin ball by ball. He is a great player and can fit into all time world XI. But great players have never been the great captains and so is Sachin.
By the way, why only these two? There are others too in the fray like Sehwag, Richards, Ponting, Aravinda de’silva, Hayden, Dravid, Miandad and so on.
At the same time its a well done job in contents and research. Keep it up Reetesh.
both decent batsmen 2 different eras … pointless argument
ok first thing this is a very good article and very well written.
i agree with laxman vernekar when he says that we cant really compare players in different eras.
however i will say this: today when sachin plays we have a lot of very good technology. we have bowling machines which can send down any bowl they want as many times as they want. we have video replay which they can analyse exactly what they are doing, and many other brilliant technology.
Bradman played at a time when there was no such technology. he had to practice either with someone bowling to him or by himself, which is why we hear about using a stump and a golf bowl. and he also invented several shots. he could not watch how others played them. so it was very hard for sir don.
and i also find it funny when a few of you have said during the bodyline bradman average was ‘just’ 57. tendulkars overall average is 55.6.
i do have to say i am a big fan of tendulkar and love watching him bat, but when it comes to comparing… bradman takes the cake for me.
Sachin is the best player i have seen i9n the hitory of cricket.
ok guys 1st things 1st..this is a great article and indeed it’s pointless comparing both batsmen….i have never seen sir don batting but i know dat there was no LBW out those times.so any one can cover the stumps and bat throughout 5 days..even if u put a 15-16 yr kid to bat without LBW i think he will manage to bat for 2 hrs…ask urselves i mean the rules are different during both of these times..so plz stop saying that anyone is greater than the other..it’s just insulting the capabilities of bothand questioning their greatness…
@ Sunil
I think you are mis informed. LBW rule was present throughout the career of Don Bradman.
sachin is best..no more comment… at bradman’s times there were no fast bowler like we have now…and also there wer no special types of balling tech. such as slow bouncers,reverse swing, dusra etc etc…and today’s bowlers are vry mch fast, avg bowling speed is abt 150-155 kmph…its really too fast..!
but at bradman’s time the fast bowler can only bowl at 120-130 odd speeds…so sachin is far btr den any one..!
Who ever criticizing Sachin Is Simply A Pathetic Loser.Don’t Compare Sachin with Don.You r just Disrespecting SACHIN.
SACHIN Is The Greatest BatsMan Of All Time.
Excellent article i have ever seen. I really appreciate the good points put forth on the world to understand sachin greatness… thanks.
The comparison abt 2 jewels of cricket is very nice…I wud lyk to keep it like that….they are the greatest players of their generation. It is not fair enough to compare players of different eras. Both of them outweigh each other in their own way…Bradman has staggering record in test cricket which is beyond comparison. Sachin is the one who redefined odis…There cnt be better than sachin in odis….Having said that sachin is the greatest ambassador of cricket in history…the way he has maintained his stature is mindboggling…in that way sachin is d most precious gem of cricket and India…He has made our nation proud.
both are different, so, stop argument about them….
Those who think who is the greatest
http://stendulkar.tripod.com/donbradman/don9.htm
You know, I always believed Bradman would be better, because the world told me so.
But, then I got to compare Sachin and Bradman on my terms, and I found that Bradman stands above Tendulkar in only one aspect, that is average. In everything else, Tendulkar is the master.
Comparing cricketers across such a wide span of years is meaningless as both eras have their pluses and minuses points. I like both, but there can be logical, opposite arguments. It is best to let it be and admire both, one for his great records which were ahead of his time and the other for being a contemporary great.
So, Sachin plays more opponents, has more external pressure,has to play more matches. On the other hand, he usually gets to play a lot on flat pitches in India, is in a safer era with just 2 bouncers and lots of protection, has an entourage of psychos, physios, etc. and has a lot of money (which can be a special motivator).
Also he plays in an era where pace is not as great. Ambrose ranks as the 3rd or 4th greatest West Indian behind Marshall, Holding and Garner. Walsh was the lowest albeit considered amongst the WI greats. Imran has a better bowling record in Tests than Waqar and Akram (ref Cricinfo) and from 1994 onwards both Ws were poor versions of themselves. McGrath was a good wicket taker but hardly scary. Donald was the only one and Sachin has a poor average against SA. Add flat pitches into the equation and it is not as challenging as what even Gavaskar faced. Most commenters did not see the raw, brutal pace of the 70s and 80s, where breaking bones was common and with no helmets. Tendulkar only had a glimpse with Waqar and Akram.
How many tests exactly did Sachin face Ambrose, Walsh, Waqar and Wasim? If you check on cricinfo, it is surprisingly few.
The Don on the other hand lost 8-9 years between 28-36 years of age due to world war 2, played when pitches, umpires and unlimited bouncers were not as standardized, had to travel in rickety transport and 6 months by sea.
Also considering his average scoring speed was 42 runs per hour in tests (average 2hrs 15min per hundred – Refer detailed breakup in the Sportstar – publisher The Hindu) in 1988 released in honour of his 80th birthday) it is hard to believe he would not have been successful in any format. And at that speed he averaged 100. No one has averaged that high and scored as quickly even in a first class career, forget tests.
No offences but someone really pay you to write such craps ????
ok i being an indian is a huge fan of sachin,but still then i would rank sir don bradman higher than sachin……
i agree to the comparissions provided by different legends about this debate
but still ,,scoring at an average of nearly(very very near)
100 is still the limit.yes the difficulties in case of sachin might be a bit more than sir bradman’s(as stated above),but in any circumstances scoring at such a high average is just awesome.
ya of course sachin has set a huge milestone by scoring a huge heap of runs……but if in sir bradman’s time,so many mathches would had been played,maybe he would had also scored such a massive ton of runs……………
First of all very important thing is Both are great players of all the time… Don has great average and Sachin has great temperament and unbelievable consistency.
Sachin always believed Don as his idol.. and comparison between these two great players is something like you are comparing Newton and Einstein.. Both are great and both have done great jobs for their countries….
Bradman constructed a strong foundation while Sachin built an excellent peak of standards and records.. and both are the Gods in Batting… We should feel lucky even though we could not witness Brdaman’s game but other god is still there on a pitch.. I salute to both these great players….