Sir Sachin Tendulkar 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W78eH2sEwwE

A compressed, good quality video upload of 175 against Aus in Hyderabad, 2009.

I was thinking the other day Thalai has been using the same bat for quite some time now. Here's a news article on that.

Tendulkar’s battered willow is lucky charm

Shalini Gupta
Thu Dec 23 2010, 01:26 hrs
Chandigarh:

I had a hunch that Thalai is playing with the same bat for sometime.

As Sachin Tendulkar pushed one past the covers off the bowling of
South Africa’s Dale Steyn to bring up his 50th Test century, one man, who resides in Jalandar, saw it as his own little victory.


The 111 not out at Centurion was Tendulkar’s fourteenth century using the same willow; one that is now battered, chipped and held together with tape. Somi Kohli, the owner of Beat All Sports, the makers of Vampire bats, has played a big role to ensure the willow is in a good condition for the Little Master to score runs. Kohli’s association with Tendulkar goes back a long way — almost till the start of the batsman’s career. It’s when they met the last time, during the Indian Premier League in May, that Kohli saw Tendulkar trying to repair the bat on his own.


“Sachin’s knowledge about bats is phenomenal but I told him that just like doctors are specialists, a willow also needs to be looked after by bat doctors,” Kohli said.




“Even though Sachin was reluctant, I took the bat away from him. Then I gave it to my friend and former Ranji Trophy cricketer Arun Sharma and then Sharma and I got down to repairing the bat. The edges were repaired and we did a bit of grafting and protected the toe too. Sachin couldn’t believe how good the bat was when I returned it to him,” Kohli said.


Just before the South Africa Test series — after scoring centuries against Sri Lanka and Australia — Tendulkar sent the bat back to Somi for another round of repairing. “The bat was in the best possible condition when I sent it back to him a day before he flew out to South Africa. I spoke to him after the Centurion match and told him that he would score his 100th century with the same bat,” Kohli added.


According to Somi, Tendulkar considers the bat to be his lucky charm. “During practice he uses others bats, but this bat is used only for matches or on the eve of a game for just a brief while to get the feel of the bat,” Kohli added.


“I hope he can bat with this willow till the end of the World Cup. We will repair it again. But I pray he gets a big century in the final of the World Cup with this bat.”




2nd Test: India vs South Africa at Durban starts Dec 26, 2010. Time: 13:30 Indian Standard Time (IST) / 08:00 GMT.

Yes. If I'm not wrong, he scored that ODI 200 with this bat. Even in NZ test, he asked for this bat, after playing with some other bat for a brief period. The commentators also mentioned about this.

Cricket
Batsman Tunes Out Troubles and Sets a Record
By HUW RICHARDS
Published: December 22, 2010

LONDON — Sachin Tendulkar’s 50th score of 100 or more in five-day tests, achieved earlier this week in Centurion, South Africa, was more than just another personal landmark in a career already overflowing with them.

Sachin Tendulkar of India celebrated his century against South Africa on the fourth day of the first cricket test match in Pretoria.
It was a significant moment for cricket as a whole. Cricket as a game thinks in fifties and hundreds and applauds when players reach those marks.

Until recently it was unthinkable that any one man might score as many as 50 centuries in tests. Tendulkar not only met the old record, 34, set by his Indian compatriot, Sunil Gavasker, he smashed it. One more and he’ll have exceeded the original mark by 50 percent.

It is not unthinkable that somebody may one day overtake Tendulkar, though his closest pursuers right now — Ricky Ponting (39) and Jacques Kallis (38) — are far behind in his wake.

It appears unlikely, barring some implausible explosion in the number of the matches or the emergence of an authentic Superman, that we will ever see the next step, somebody scoring 100 centuries in tests, and that makes Tendulkar’s mark of 50 a truly special moment.

For many of the Tendulkar’s millions of followers, he already is Superman. He is a rare sporting marvel, a child prodigy who not only fulfilled the awesome potential he first showed when he broke into India’s team at 16, but then showed the desire and durability that allowed him to maintain his top-level play later on in his career. It is as if Mozart had lived to be 70, composing fresh works of greatness all the while.

That Tendulkar, 37, retains his underlying genius was evident in the first innings at Centurion as India collapsed around him. Tendulkar was facing the most effective and aggressive pace pairing in world cricket — Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel of South Africa — in conditions that perfectly suited them. He did not merely cope, but scored more than a run a ball, producing a succession of breathtaking strokes.

In the second innings, when he reached his own landmark, he was battling for his team, desperately attempting to avert first defeat and then, when that became inevitable, the humiliation of losing by an innings.

It was left to a South African, India coach Gary Kirsten, to shed light on what is perhaps the secret to Tendulkar’s extraordinary durability: practice.

He is, “the model of what an international cricketer should be, and has been for years,” Kirsten said. “I still reckon that I do more throw-downs to him every day than any other member of the squad.”

That comment brought to mind other great athletes who had nothing else to prove, yet still had the inner drive to take them to the next level.

Like the golfer Gary Player, who when complimented on his good fortune said, “And you know, the more I practice, the luckier I get.”

The baseball player Joe DiMaggio explained his dedication to performing well every day by pointing out, “there might be some kid watching who has never seen me play before.”

The 50th century is yet another addition to the monument being built by the man who, without a doubt, is the greatest living batsman. He plays in a batting order that also includes the world’s most explosively brilliant player, Virender Sehwag, and the man who most closely resembles the outcome should anyone ever succeed in constructing the ideal batsman from scratch, Rahul Dravid.

Yet none of them, not even Tendulkar, is India’s most valuable player, in the sense of being the man it can do least without. The match in Centurion left little doubt about who that is: the left-arm quick bowler Zaheer Khan.

While South Africa’s pacemen made the pitch there look lethal, India’s equivalents, shorn of their injured leader, were ineffective and allowed the Proteas to pile up 620 runs for four wickets. With Zaheer, India will just about pass muster in bowling, his presence taking the pressure off the other players. His teammates benefit from the pressure that his speed and movement place on opposing batsmen. Without him, India is way short of what a No. 1 team needs.

A version of this article appeared in print on December 23, 2010, in The International Herald Tribune.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/23/sp...CRICKET23.html

It's nice to see articles written in nytimes about Tendulkar.

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The first innings of Sachin that I saw. 165 vs Eng in Chennai :victory:

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Thanks to Rob, the uploader. His 500th upload :omg:

LM dnt forget to bring in the downloads during our meet!
Thanks for bearing my torture! :D

It's always a pleasure to share Sachin's vids :D

The Magnificent Case of Sachin Tendulkar


-
Faraaz Rahman

In his first test match at Karachi in 1989, he was left with a bloody nose and a blood soaked t-shirt. His crime? He had dared to attempt a cover drive against the fastest bowler in the world Waqar Younis, he had dared to not be intimidated by Imran Khan and Wasim Akram in their own back yard. The audacity of the 16 year old boy shocked the world as he refused to leave the field, deciding instead to bat on and fight it out. If test cricket is what differentiates the men from the boys, then there never was a more quintessential example as a 16 year old boy proved his manhood. 20 years, 30000 runs and about 90 international centuries later, we know that boy as Sachin Tendulkar, a legend, a phenomenon, a champion.

Although I was first introduced to cricket back in 1992, I had very little understanding other than the fact that I was to celebrate like everyone else around me then and not ask too many questions. It was not until 1995 that I began to understand the game a little better, began to understand the concept of bat and ball. Very soon I had also learnt to be jealous of the fact that the best batsman in the world was an Indian. Nope, no way, Saeed Anwar was a better batsman, and soon the world will acknowledge.

This continued for a couple of years, when I would vociferously argue about Saeed Anwar?s superiority over Sachin Tendulkar and I had good reason too because for a couple of years in the mid 90s, they were neck and neck in terms of the number of ODI centuries. Back then, Desmond Haynes held the record for most ODI centuries and I was hoping Anwar would break his record before Tendulkar and prove to the world that the best batsman in the world played in the Pakistan cricket team. Alas, that was not too be as Anwar suffered a slump in form and Tendulkar went on to not only break the record but leave Anwar way behind in terms of number of centuries.

Around this time, I also realized that not only was Tendulkar ahead of Anwar in ODIs, he was also way ahead of him in Test cricket. Australia toured India around this time for a test series hailed as Warne vs Tendulkar, the best spinner in the world vs the best batsman in the world. I was obviously on Warne?s side, hoping he would win the battle and prove once and for all that Tendulkar was no big deal. Alas once again Tendulkar broke my heart as he darted Warne all over the park in that series like a school boy and such was the effect of the maestro on Warne that he later admitted to having nightmares of Tendulkar coming down the track and smashing him.

I had to find someone else. This someone else happened to be the burly Inzamam ul Haq, who had been hailed by no less than Imran Khan himself as an equal of Tendulkar and Lara. Yes, I had found my new hero, Inzamam was the best batsman in the world.

My argument this time? Inzamam?s ability to win matches for Pakistan, his ratio of match winning centuries being much superior to Tendulkar?s. I would listen to Imran Khan speak about Inzamam and then copy those arguments in my case for Inzamam, he was a great player of fast bowling, has so much time, and has tremendous ability to handle pressure.

Everytime he played against Pakistan, I wanted him to fail. I moaned the fact that India never played Pakistan in test matches for most part of the 90s because I wanted Wasim and Waqar in full flow against Tendulkar. But over the years, as my understanding of cricket developed, I realized that he surely knew how to bat. I realized that by wanting Pakistan?s best bowlers to dismiss him, I had already acknowledged him as a champion batsman, otherwise why would it be so important for Wasim Akram to be able to dismiss Tendulkar? I considered Wasim the best bowler in the world, so the only logical explanation was that Tendulkar was also the best batsman in the world. When young Mohammad Aamer dismissed Tendulkar with an away going delivery in a Champions Trophy match last year, I jumped from my seat. But it was not out of malice, but rather it was the respect and admiration I had for the man that made young Aamer getting that wicket so special.

Tendulkar has hurt me many times, his innings at Centurion against Pakistan in World Cup 2003 ensured in Pakistan?s ouster in the first round. I remember a shot he played against Wasim Akram in the first over, a back of a length ball bowled by Wasim, which has often given him wickets, timed with perfection and placed with disdain between cover fielders for a four. That was in the first over, and that told me that the champion was at his best today, and that meant he could take the game away from Pakistan. Saeed Anwar had scored a century in that match and Tendulkar was going play a knock to rival that.

As a cricket fan, regardless of which team one supports, one cannot help but admire Tendulkar. Its not just his cricketing prowess but the level of dedication, sportsmanship and aura he brings to the game. Just watching him on the field tells us just how much he loves the game.

Today I no longer have to fight any contradictions inside me. In 2004 he was unbeaten on 194 against Paksistan in Rawalpindi when Rahul Dravid declared the innings and it upset me as I knew he deserved a double century that day. I have no shame in acknowledging that there is Brian Lara, Inzamam ul Haq, Ricky Ponting and Rahul Dravid, and then a few notches higher, there is Sachin Tendulkar, if not in terms of cricketing talent, then in terms of his impeccable commitment, sheer strength of character and utmost humility.

That sums up Sachin Tendulkar for me. About 12 years back, my Mathematics teacher with whom I used to engage in various cricketing discussions had told me that Tendulkar would one day get 50 centuries. I disagreed vehemently, not so much out of disrespect but simply because I could not imagine someone could get to 50 centuries in international cricket. He proved me wrong once again just like he had done on countless occasions before. But today it does not upset me. Instead I am too busy admiring a great achievement by an extremely talented man, who never tried to substitute that talent for hard work.
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A good read. It's always nice to read such articles from rival fans. The author is a Pakistani fan.