Was Tendulkar's Sydney special his best?

I got a very interesting email from Anandkumar in Bangalore this morning. With his permission, it's shown below...

Notwithstanding the sheer delight of watching his matchwinning 117 not out on Sunday against Australia, statistically too ,  I thought this ought to rate as the best [one-day] innings in  his illustrious career. Here are some statistics  thanks to Statsguru on Cricinfo.

Some background first:

- Of the 42 centuries he has scored thus far (out of 417 matches)  16 (in 217 matches) of them were scored when India chased.
- Of these 16, on 14 centuries  (134 matches) were scored on occasions that India won the match (on the other two ocassions India lost thanks to the parade after his exit)
It was interesting to note that of these 14 matchwinning centuries, six were scored in 1998 alone, when he was arguably at his best.

- Of his 14 centuries, there were only 4 occasions that he scored a century and remained not out as India chased to victory.

Those are: 112 no against  Sri Lanka in 1995, where India chased 202 at Sharjah, 127 no against Kenya in 1996 where India chased 199 in Cuttack, 122 no against West Indies in 2001 where India chased 229 at Harare and 117 n.o against Australia last Sunday.

Apart from it being against the Aussies, the occasion and the drama around this series, the 117 clearly came through in India's highest chase ... and therefore it ought to be right up there in his own list.

I, for one, had been disappointed that he just wasn't doing a Bevan and have been waiting for this kind of an innings for a long long time - playing right through the innings and being there right till the winning run, whether or not he scored a century.

Here are the stats for that as well. Apart from his centuries, there have been only four other occasions out of the 134 matches that we won where he played a finisher's role - 57 not out against South Africa in 1992 (he came in lower down order those days), 87 no (a good 10 years later against England in 2002), 82 no (against Bangladesh in 2004) and an unbeaten 67 against Sri Lanka in 2005. None were against the mighty Aussies.

So this 117 was truly special, and I am glad I saw every ball that he played.

It's hard to refute his arguments, though I still rate the 98 against Pakistan at the 2003 World Cup as his finest effort in a chase. Though he was out before victory was clinched, he set the platform for a quite stunning pursuit of 273. Also, the hype surrounding that game was unimaginable. Tendulkar himself told me in an interview four years ago that he hadn't slept properly for almost a fortnight preceding the game.

The 95 at Lahore in 2006 also comes close. On a seam-friendly pitch where Mohammad Asif made even Rahul Dravid struggle, Tendulkar was absolutely masterful, again providing the impetus for the run chase.

There's also the innings in the Sharjah final in 1998, after which Shane Warne spoke in awed terms of nightmares.

What do you think? Which Tendulkar effort has pride of place in your minds? And what of the great finishers from other teams? Lance Klusener had some stunning efforts in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and Michael Bevan's last-ball four and Port Elizabeth heroics [against England in the 2003 World Cup] are part of cricket lore. Javed Miandad's last-ball six in Sharjah still haunts a generation of Indians, while Inzamam-ul-Haq's magnificent innings at Ahmedabad [2005] isn't far behind.

Let me know your thoughts.

Comments

[Atul Bedade's Ghost]

All Hail Sanjay Manjrekar for inspiring Sachin

[Ananth]

Best ODI in loosing cause from SRT chasing:
1. 90 odd in mumbai '96 WC.Single handedly demolished till the world realized he was only 23 and the immaturity showed in stepping out to waugh.i saw this at wankhade and you have to be there to experience it!
2.141 against pakistan in the recent ODI,lahore.Big 100's is his specialty and it was great to watch.
143 agains aussie in sharjah - we all know about that..

In winning cause..many
1.89 n.o against pakistan in toronto.chasing against the wasim,waqar and saqlin..amazing innings
2.88 in bangalore against aussie in 1996..Oh Oh..what a match.
3.134 the most memorable super human effort.Unmatched,unparalleled.
4.98 against pakistan in centurion.the pakistan attack had amazing variety.that straight drive of akhtar will remain in our hearts for eternity!
i think i can go on and on...
The thing is when srt bats it does not matter what series we are playing,finals and all that.It is just point blank pulsating and nerve wrecking and heart beat pounding and being thrilled all the same time!!!!

[Nitin]

Dear Mr. Premchandran,

Thanks for inviting our opinion. In addition to the innings you mentioned, and by other posters, one my favorite memories of Sachin is his innings of 90 against Australia in Mumbai, World Cup 1996. The counter attack when India was 3 down for 17 or thereabouts was simply stunning.

This is the innings during which Don Bradman called his wife over to watch saying that Sachin' style and compactness reminded him of himself (personally I thought the Don, great as he was, was flattering himself. Sachin is a very stylish batsman - very straight and correct - and comparing purely on style, I have not read anyone writing of Bradman as a stylist - not even the ever effusive Mr. Cardus.

[Saranya]

Dileep, for me this knock is up there with his two masterpieces at Sharjah because of the way he paced the innings more than anything.

The Sharjah knocks were brutal assaults that will never be forgotten simply for the sheer class, and at times violence, of his strokeplay.

This knock at Sydney showed how he has evolved over the years, it was paced to perfection and from a technical point of view was perfect.

For Sachin to score 117 from 120 balls with only 10 boundaries shows two things. Firstly, his determination not to take any undue risks, that he understood how important it was to the team that he bat through if they were going to be in with a chance of winning, Secondly, how much thought went into this innings, singles, twos & threes interspersed with boundaries when needed were going to be the way to chase down the total.

Should we really have been suprised by his feats on this tour? The 97 at Gwalior against Pakistan was the clearest hint that he was back to best, long may he continue.

[Rohit]

I agree with Biju. There is too much analysis here and perhaps we are not comparing apples to apples in the first place. There are supposed to be 11 players in the team who get paid for doing their roles. Sachin's job, as an opner, is to see through 10-20 overs with respectable total on the board at a decent pace. The guy has been delivering on a regular basis for over a generation (of cricketers) now while his other senior colleagues are cooling their heels in India. It is not his fault that he didn't have the ideal supporting crew for probably 10years of his career else, he would have scored more and would have won more matches for India.

I have enjoyed watching different style of strokeplay through his career.. fearless but inconsistent in the early nineties, consistent and authoritative in mid and late nineties, and thoughtful, and "optimized" last few years. In each of these phases he has delivered on a regular basis and has provided some memorable innings that can not be compared to anyone or anything else he has done before. I am just glad that he is here to teach and nurture the crop of fearless youngsters that are coming on the scene the way he did eons ago.

Salute to him.

[Dileep]

Thanks, Tim. The way he's turned it around is just astonishing. It's very much his decision to make, but I really think giving up one-day cricket would prolong his career by at least two years. And India don't have any high-profile ODIs for quite a while, so it would be a good opportunity to reintroduce the likes of Reina. Outside the World Cup, only matches against Australia and South Africa are worth getting excited about. The other teams are all so mediocre, with Sri Lanka also having come back to the field.

[Tim]

Fascinating stuff. While the Sharjah innings probably were his absolute peak, I think the CB Series is a significantly more prestigious tournament.

Dileep - I don't know if you or any of your readers would be interested but I have just done an article analysing the extent of Tendulkar's decline (from mid-2004 to mid-2007) and examining his spectacular resurgence since then. The link is http://third-umpire.blogspot.com/2008/03/how-sachin-turned-it-around.html

[bijusportsfan]

A win is a win, whether batting first or chasing. None of the finishers that you talked about (bevan or klusner) are openers. Tendulkar plays as an opener and when he is chasing he has a bug burden to set uo the game as he knows there are 9 other palyers coming after him. He cannot occupy the crease and "waste" overs and so he tries to up the tempo and some times get out on the process. Do you think there are many other openers who are finishers as well? How many openers stay not out till the end of the match? I am tired of all the stats showing many other players having a higher second i nnings average than tendulkar. But that doesnt tell us the position they are batting. All of them are middle order batsmen and naturally they have a high not out rates as they come in lower down the order which no doubt boosts their average. You can compare tendulkar as a finisher with other openers like gilchrist, hayden, jayasurya, saeed Anwar, G. Smith etc.

[Tarun Y]

Hi Dileep,

I have to agree - the 117no is probably Sachin's best innings.
The 98 against Pakistan in WC2003 - I disagree. Simply because: [1] it wasnt a knock-out game (like the '96 QFinal), [2] India could afford to lose and still make the super six (after having just defeated England), [3] Pakistan were a bowler short and Wasim/Waqar were past their peaks (unlike Bracken/Bret Lee at present).

Other Century Scores (chasing) of note:
[2] Herschelle Gibbs 175 in that series decider between Australia and S.Africa in 2005 in the record run-chase.
[3] Steve Waugh's 120 ("you've just dropped the world cup") in 1999.
[4] Sachin Tendulkar v Australia 1998 ("Desert Storm").
and [5] (this one deserves a special mention) Mohd Ashraful's 100 v Australia in the round-robin match between Bangladesh and Australia in the Natwest Series before the 2005 Ashes. Simply because it was a match-winning knock for the "worst team in the world" against the "best team in the world". David truly slaying Goliath.

[bhutti82]

An interesting debate and this innings will surely go down as one of his best efforts, particularly because of its immediate background and its impact on the tournament.

But I will rate his blistering 143 against Australia as his best. The quality of bowling, the absence of any support, the situation (254 in 46 overs to qualify for the final) and the sheer brilliance of his strokeplay easily places that innings over his other centuries.

The much heralded 98 in the World Cup was also exceptional.

95 in Lahore was memorable for the way he combined stout defence against prodigous seam movement with attack. Even while offering straight bat to Md. Asif and Umer Gul, he ensured that the asking run rate (289 was the target)never became unachievable.

141 against Pakistan in Rawalpindi 2004, though less remembered, was also a splendid innings. Chasing 330, he took India to a competitive 245/3 in the 39th over with only meaningful support coming from Dravid. It was a pity that Dravid got out immediately after him for 85 in 12 overs with 6 wickets in hand could have been achieved with a set batsman on the pitch.

But the Sydney knock will surely rank just after the Sharjah innings. His complete mastery over a very lethal attack, they way he paced the innings and his reistance to his groin injury really made this innings special.