Sachin Vs The Most Feared Opponent

A lot is being written about Sachin ever since he crossed the 20th season of his career, that is not because he broke another record (which he does every other week) but because people are looking at him with a different perspective for the first time. The master has displayed several times that he can demolish the best, be it Mc Grath, Warne, Wasim, Waqar and co. If there is one feared opponent, then it is the ‘TIME’.

We can write pages about every great knock of Sachin, and there will be endless stories about his skill, talent, dedication, commitment and his heroics. One thing which will always go unnoticed is the way he has fought against Time.

From the moment he was handed a Mumbai cap in Ranji trophy he has fought against the time. As a 15 year old kid, he fought against time to prove that he belongs to the league of men and not a kid. He wanted to grow up faster than what the TIME permitted him, and he did it successfully. In his century (175) against australia, he fought not against the opposition bowlers, but against time to prove that he is not the old guy of the team and he still have a 16 year old kid in him. To field for the 50 overs, and clearly being the best fielder of the team, and coming back and playing almost 50 overs and running (even during the last phase of the game) quicker than his teen age team mates, who were toddlers when he had his debut is not just an amazing feat. India lost the match, his team mates failed to take the team past the victory which was quite easy when he got out.

Lesser mortal would have been satisfied with such a splendid and near perfect knock, but not Sachin. He chose a better opponent (bowling wise), and went on to play the perfect ODI innings of all time a 200* of 147 balls. Till the last over of the match he was running singles and twos. He urged his younger partners to run fast for their runs. Again he won over TIME, and proved to the world that he can still successfully win a battle against TIME.

His current prolific run is not a statement to his critics or to his opposition, but it is a statement made to TIME. He is emphatically telling TIME “Mate, you better wait”. It happens with some great men, even after going past their prime they show occasional brilliance which others cannot replicate. The difference when it comes to Sachin is, never getting past that prime. That is why he is not just a great batsman but a superhuman beyond compare.

If we try listing out the top 3 knocks over the last three years, leaving out Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. Incidentally all the top ODI knocks belong to Sachin. Sachin’s 200* of 147 balls a perfect ODI innings, Sachin’s 175 against Hyderabad is not just the best odi knock of year 2009 but probably will be one of the best knocks of all time, then his 163 not out (missed a double ton if not for the injury) and then an perfect example of odi batting diplay which should feature in any manual for ODIs, and last but not the least his 138 in an ODI final, which India won after a long time. Bring in Ponting, Kallis, and all other new kids in the block, yet there is no century which can match any one of these over the past couple of years. We are not talking about the Sachin of 1998, where even Viv Richards was not a match for him, what we are talking about is a man who has played for 20 years after suffering all kind of injuries. Let us take the recent ODI history, over the past three years, he is the third top run scorer, but what matters is he has played far lesser matches than the others, if runs scored per innings is considered he is way above the rest and his strike rate too is only less than Yuvi among the top 10 batsman over the past three years.

To be regarded as the world’s best is a phenomenal thing, but to be the world’s best for over 15 years in both forms of the game is something that defies logic and something that is against the law of Time. There have been players, 15 to be exact who have played for more years than what Sachin has done so far. If you consider, the amount of travel, the number of countries and venues, the number of matches (include both ODIs and Tests), I am sure he would have spent more than 60% of his life in the cricket field (of course assuming he sleeps 8 hours a day).

The yardstick here is not just the years; the measure of greatness here is the aura that he was able to create every time he walks in to the field. To make billion people to have those goose bumps and that adrenaline rush when he walks in is a thing which is very hard to express in words. To sustain that kind of aura when he is stepping in to his third decade of international career is beyond any sporting legendary known to mankind.

There is always a sad part to this story; there is no way Sachin can keep winning the challenges against time forever. There will be a day when ‘Time’ will have the final say and Sachin will have to hang his boots. Eventually after winning over all opponents, our little master should fall against ‘Time’. No doubt that “Time” will finally slay our God of good times. We knew this for almost 5 years now, a deep grief and darkness engulfs our heart the moment we think about that dark day. Though the ending is known, what makes this story a sporting epic is the way the master is gearing up for the climax and the way he is executing it. Sachin always writes his own script, and I am sure the climax is going to be one hell of a ride for all Sachin fans and sports buffs.

There is a famous saying that “without pain and sorrow we forget that we are living”. There have been hundreds of happy occasions when Sachin treated us with pure magic over the past two decades, but then we forget those moments and there is nothing wrong in that as well. That is the human tendency. We remember those matches where Sachin’s great knocks ended up on the losing cause. The critics of Sachin remember them better and say that if he scores a century then India will lose the match, clearly forgetting that he has scored 32 centuries in winning cause which is much more than the total centuries scored by any batsman of all era.

What they fail to understand is the significance of those knocks. Imagine a case, when a great ‘Jawan’ is fighting with all his might even after losing all his compatriots, he single handedly takes on the opposition but dies just short of winning that war. Will you criticize him? We will all be hurt and feel sad, but we will appreciate his efforts and we will glorify him. A sane person cannot blame this ‘Jawan’ for the defeat, it is the same with the critics of Sachin, a sane person will never criticize such efforts.

We have seen a lot magic moments of Sachin over the past few months from many great authors. We have people compiling the quotes on Sachin. I don’t belong to that list of talented people, I am just going to recollect those sad moments which will linger in my mind for a long time. Those moments, which will tell me time and again that sorrows and failures, are part of life and we need to carry on. There will be days when all that we need is memories and nothing else, and thanks to him he has provided numerous such memories however tragic they are.

There are many bitter sweet memories with Sachin knocks. Some of his very good knocks (70s and 80s) ending up in a losing cause because of pathetic performance by his team mates.

But let us see some of the few matches where some of the best knocks of Sachin been on the losing cause simply because of his team mates (or match fixing)

“Winners compare their achievements with their goals, while losers compare their achievements with those of other people”

people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.”

1)    His 137 knock against Sri Lanka. Like always sachin played a top class knock and broke a list of records in an important match. He scored his 6th century and broke the record of sidhu and became the highest century maker for india, he scored the second highest score made by an Indian. Inspite of cracking a run a ball century an unforgettable knock we ended up in the losing side, as prabhakar opened the innings with sachin and scored 7 runs from 36 balls with an edged boundary, which makes it 3 runs for 35 balls. Then coming and opening the bowling for india and leaking away 33 runs from his first two overs and coming and bowling off-spin. Have you ever seen a fast bowler coming and bowling off-spinners in an international match and that too in a world cup? Sachin and kumble bowled their heart out to restrict Lankans, but then prabhakar has already won the match single handedly for sri lankans. Check the match score card

2)    Now skipping the semi final of that world cup, where even a school team would have played better than azhar and jadeja and the team other than sachin falling like 9 pins. Inspite of sachin’s allround performance, the rest of the team made the Indians cry by their performance.

The next century of sachin in Singapore is another example of how both teams (barring sachin) can work for the victory of oppositions. After scoring a good century and the team being in 184 for 3, after the fall of sachin India folds out to 220 all out. Who is to be blamed here? Check the match score card

3)    Who can forget this match? The sand storm knock. Nobody can describe this knock completely, inspite of taking India to the verge of victory after opening the match and single handedly taking India close. When he got out, india needed to make 34 from 20 balls. What followed was a shocker, Laxman and Kanitkar batting out the overs like a test match to remain not out (kanitkar 5 of 14 balls and laxman 23 of 34 balls). Very poor bowling and fielding and coupled with this kind of irresponsible batting. Laxman and Kanitkar deserved a life ban for playing such a game.

4)    Speaking seriously I have little doubt that India would have been banned from playing test matches just like what happened to Zimbabwe if not for Sachin. Look at the scorecard and you will find how hard all the other player worked for helping Sri Lanka win. Check the scorecard here just look at this scorecard, no explanations needed. You don’t often see better knocks than this while chasing a big target. Another match, and another solid performance by Indian team Check the score card, the reason why people switch of the TVs when Sachin gets out is because of frequent matches like these.

5)    Another good knock of Sachin going down the drains because of his team mates, even Zimbabwe is far better when it comes to collective performance than India, and this is one of the matches where Dravid forgot that he was playing an ODI against Zimbabwe (he was of the perception that the match was a test match against aussies) Check the score card.

6)    Another knock while chasing 338, critics often say that he don’t perform while chasing a high score. Sachin and ganguly opened the innings, sachin got 62 from 38 balls and Ganguly got 9 runs after facing the same number of balls, and what should have sachin done? Scored 200 runs from 90 balls? And even if he had scored that much, the rest of the Indian team was talented enough to squander such an innings and ultimately lose out the match. Check the match score card

7)    Another heart break, probably the next best batting effort while chasing a target close to 350 at that time. It is hard to see a better knock than this while chasing a huge total, against pakisthan and in pakisthan with sohaib akthar and sami in their pomp. First person to reach 13k runs, first Indian to score a century in Pak, one of the best knocks of all time while chasing, but all ended with india’s deafeat, because india inspite of this century by sachin could not bat out the 50 over quota, and ended up 12 runs short with 8 balls left in the innings. The match was this close inspite of Ganguly scoring 15 from 40 odd balls.Check the scorecard

8)    Another good knock at Ahmedabad, and another goof up by team india set a target of 317 in 48 overs, and india last the plot and last the game in the last ball (inspite of sachin bowling an exceptional final over). Check the score card

9)    A comeback match, and seldom can batsman play such knocks in international cricket after such a long break. In a landmine of a pitch, where dravid and co where exposed by the movement of the ball of the pitch, sachin toyed around with the bowlers at the other end. But we lost the match and thanks to D/L methods and some stupid thinking by dravid where he opted to use the powerplay when the rain was evident. And thanks to our bowlers, who bowled exceptionally well by giving away 26 extras in just 20 overs. Check the scorecard

10)    Even a team like Kenya or Ireland would have pulled their teams to victory from such a position. The best odi knock ever, lot of landmarks crossed. Can’t stop bragging about this knock. Yet, everything ended up futile. 175 runs while chasing 350 and you lose by 3 runs with 2 balls left. Heart shattering result after such a glorious knock. But that is India for you. Check the scorecard

If we start talking about his test matches, we will definitely feel a lump in our throat, masterpieces went in vain. Unlike ODIs where sachin has took india to victory several times single handedly, Sachin have not won many matches single handedly because in tests you need to take 20 wickets to win, and need to bat twice. Some of the all time best knocks went in vain because of his team.

His 169 against SA, his 136 against pak, his 138 against aussies in Australia, his 114 in Perth and so on. It is difficult to explain how Sachin belonged to a team which was not fit enough to play against top nations. His 138 in Melbourne was a classic example, Dravid batted for around 3 and half hours to score 20 runs, Ganguly getting out to Blewett without troubling the scorers in the both innings, Laxman and Kanitkar played for time pass, Kumble finishing the match with 2 wickets for 170 runs along with dropped catches (Dravid ended up the series scoring less runs than even Kumble). In a match like this Sachin played like a man possessed, hitting Shane Warne out of the park of his first delivery. Hitting boundaries all around the ground. He ended up being the man of the match and also the man of series, but Indian team was thrashed like a third rated club team. Like I said before, if not for Sachin, team India would have been denied the test playing status like what it happened to Zimbabwe.

Again, it is the way of Fate and Destiny which time and again reminds the world that for every superman there is a Kryptonite and Sachin’s kryptonite is his team’s collective failure when he plays some extraordinary knocks. Whatever we write or say, it is hard to explain this phenomenon called as Sachin. The mere speculation of sachin’s career coming to an end because of his back injury prompted a girl to commit suicide, his absence due to injuries have always sent the TRP rating to nose dive no matter how good the team is. His late withdrawal from the Asia XI vs World XI forced the sponsors and telecasters to withdraw the deal with the BCCI. How many people in India can ignore a headline having his name in it? There is a saying that after Mahatma Gandhi, Sachin is the only person who can bind a diverse nation like India.

The fact of the matter is the ‘Sachin factor’ goes beyond India, no non-Pakistani player will ever get a standing Ovation like what Sachin got after his Rawalpindi knock, every time when he walks in and walks out, he got standing ovation in Australia, New Zealand, England and no player in any sport will get such a reception from the opposing nation ever. If there can be one brand ambassador for cricket then the universal Choice would be Sachin.

Sports sometimes have been influenced by individuals, like Jordan for NBA or what a Joe Namath did for NFL. But then they never made one billion people, to watch, pray and weep at the same time. They did not stop time like what Sachin has done. Trains and buses were not stopped to watch them play. On this day, his 37th birthday, we remember him not just as the best cricketer of all time, but also as a great and humble human being. He just doubled his charity for orphans and blind children few months back.

Every time when he leaves the field after getting out, a billion people control their tears from dropping out. Will they be able to do it, when he leaves the field for the last time? I don’t want to know the answer, cricket will not be the same game after that day when eventually TIME will slay our hero. Then again he is called as the God of Cricket, so as long as Cricket exists, Sachin’s name will be etched in the memory of every cricket fan. We at cricages wish him a long and happy life on this day.

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Tags: Feared, featured, Opponent, sachin, sachin tendulkar, tendulkar

Category: Ajith's Straight Drive, Columns, Sachin Zone