Sir Sachin Tendulkar 4

[littlemaster1982]

Post from another cricket forum.

Haven't gone through the posts in this thread, but just to let you guys know the first hand experience of the effect a Sachin innings can have.

I was at the Ganga Ram Hospital (in Delhi) pediatric ICU for the last 2-3 weeks due to a personal emergency. As you can imagine, near a hospital unit dealing with terminally sick kids, the scene on the floor was always somber with families praying for their kids to get healthier and there used to be the regular wailing from nervous families or from the families which bid good bye to young kids of the household who couldn't struggle against their acute illnesses anymore.

For those 75-80 minutes after SRT scored his 100 and then went onto unleash those gorgeous shots, the scene on that entire floor was completely different. There were smiles all around. I saw people who used to wail and cry all the time praying for their kids well being, jumping with joy and cheering for Sachin's 200, saw even some patients on wheel chairs being carried to their rooms stopping before a TV on the floor and applauding the knock. So much of positive energy all because of one humble human being wielding his bat and unleashing those sumptuous drives, cuts, pulls and delicate paddle sweeps.

And last but not the least, there was this young boy aged about 14, struggling with a multiple organ failure and on whom the doctors had given up all hopes of a recovery, he sat with me for 10-15 minutes during the last stages of that knock praying for the world record to be broken first and then for the 200, returned to his room with a huge smile despite all the pain and then 2 days later his struggle abruptly came to an end and he breathed his last. Trust me, I never saw him without a smile during his last 2 days.

Forget everything, if an innings can bring such joy and smile to someone in so much of pain, lets have more such gems, even if it's termed as useless by some people.

Thank you Sachin!

I never get emotional, but this post left me in tears. Forget all the records and runs, no one can ever achieve this.

Sachin is truly a GOD

[ajithfederer]

Kondu vandhadharkku nandri, LM.

[VinodKumar's]

Lord of the fans
Gambhir pointed out how crucial the home fans would be for his team tonight, even going as far as to say they would be the 12th man, but the crowd's reaction to each run Tendulkar gathered made it sound more like Dadar than Delhi. When Tendulkar clipped three runs, collecting the ball from outside off and working those wrists, the fans showed their appreciation. When he walked down the track and put Farveez Maharoof away for four, they went wild. And when Tendulkar steered a lovely four, opening his hands and placing it past the infield, well that was just what you'd expect from fans of this man. Lalit Modi, the IPL commissioner, had spoken before the first season of how he had envisioned city-based loyalties. That's not going to happen anywhere in India when Tendulkar is batting.

[ajithfederer]

Delhi v Mumbai, IPL 2010, Delhi
Tendulkar glow helps Mumbai shine
Jamie Alter in Delhi

March 18, 2010

Text size: A | A
On a day when he stamped his authority on the shortest format of the game, Sachin Tendulkar provided glimpses of the many facets to his cricketing persona (file photo) © AFP


Related LinksBulletin : Delhi fizzle out after Tendulkar, Tiwary onslaught
Players/Officials: Sachin Tendulkar
Matches: Delhi Daredevils v Mumbai Indians at Delhi
Series/Tournaments: Indian Premier League
Teams: Delhi Daredevils | India | Mumbai Indians


In his 21st year of international cricket, Sachin Tendulkar has been in superb form - runs have flowed in Tests and ODIs and now the Twenty20 format. His innings at the Kotla on Wednesday encompassed all that is brilliant about the man - not just in the manner of his own batting but in how it influenced Mumbai Indians, both necessary traits if they aspire to reach the IPL semi-finals.

Mind over body
That Tendulkar can score 200 in an ODI and continue to drag a cricket ball from outside off stump and hit it through midwicket at the age of 37 instead of 27, Geoffrey Boycott wrote recently, will continue to astonish many. Yet it should not, he added, come as a surprise: though a player's fitness starts to slip a bit when he hits the mid-30s, the vast experience gained allows him to play smart cricket. The result, as Tendulkar so aptly showed this evening, was that he can perform just as well as he did at 27 without stretching his body to breaking point.

Tendulkar is clearly enjoying his cricket, and it was evident in his body language throughout the game. After losing the toss and being asked to bat, a calm Tendulkar said he would have chosen to do so anyway. You could sense he was eager to get out and bat on what he called "a venue that has never been bouncy and tends to play slow and low". His mind was running, and the body caught up soon after in a thrilling display of what experience and form can produce.

Touch and thwack
Tendulkar has often been more of a touch artist than a bludgeoner but today he showed the gamut from subtle to sledgehammer. His first four boundaries were delicate, tapping the ball lightly with deft wristwork and helping it on its way square of the wicket on both sides. Then, after he scooped a thick edge just over the cover fielder for four, Tendulkar brought out the thump: he stepped out to the legspinner Sarabjit Ladda, made room and produced a big straight hit that bounced just in front of the sightscreen. He repeated the dosage for Amit Mishra. First he played a delicate caress to a fullish ball, hanging back and opening the face of the bat to get four between short third man and point, and next ball smashed it back past the bowler who smartly got out of the way. This trend continued until Tendulkar was dismissed by Mishra for a 32-ball 63.

Setting the tone
Getting a start is critical in Twenty20 and Tendulkar delivered in the manner that suits him best. He didn't give the bowlers a chance and made sure to keep the ball along the ground. His aggressive intent and the success it yielded, allowed the remaining batsmen to play around him. Aditya Tare slammed 17 from ten balls before he missed a slog, and the pair that followed built on a run rate that was over 10.50. The platform had been set, and Saurabh Tiwary and Ambati Rayudu were able to come out and ride on the wave, ultimately setting up a 200-plus total.

Big Brother
Aside from his role as batsman, what Tendulkar offers as a thinktank is massive. Two days ago, in the build-up to this massive clash, Tendulkar spent extra time with Tiwary in the nets at the Feroz Shah Kotla, feeding him with balls to fine-tune his sweep shots, which were going wayward. Clearly there has been a thought process behind elevating Tiwary to the first-choice playing XI this season. This season, Tiwary has played some sparkling innings for Jharkhand, the state he captains on the domestic front, and it has not been lost on the Mumbai management. Having someone of Tendulkar's stature give you additional time before a match can work wonders and the result was Tiwary's second belligerent half-century in a row. Under him the Indian players seem to have found the confidence to do well, and how Tendulkar continues to nurture the likes of Tare, Tiwary and Rayudu could be the decisive chapter in Mumbai's season.

Sachin the strategist
Today, Tendulkar held back the star West Indian duo of Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard, who had only reached India late last night, until the innings was almost done. Given the big bucks doled out for Pollard and Bravo, it would have been tempting to throw them in early but Tendulkar resisted and the move paid off richly.

During Delhi's chase he turned to Sanath Jayasuriya after Harbhajan Singh got a wicket in his first over, and the Sri Lankan allrounder struck in successive overs. Again, it would have been easy to keep Bravo and Pollard on but Tendulkar read the track and knew spin was going to be crucial. These are but small instances that allude to how he thinks.

Talisman effect
A Mumbai victory over Delhi in the Ranji Trophy always merits quite a few columns of newspaper space, and so should this win in the IPL. The playing field is vastly different, but given the form Delhi have been in and the all-round weight they boast of, this certainly qualified as an upset. They had won two in a row, and Mumbai can take fantastic encouragement from the fact that they've hit some form themselves.

Watching Mumbai's first two games this season, it is evident that this is a team that has the firepower to do well, but what they need to inspire them is Tendulkar. His injury in 2008 and patchy form in 2009 were undoubtedly factors in Mumbai's ordinary displays. But after two disappointing seasons the team may just have found the man in the right frame of mind. Captaincy has never been Tendulkar's strong point, as two disastrous stints in charge of India attest to, but in the Twenty20 format, and in such rich form, he may just be on the right path.
Jamie Alter is a senior sub-editor at Cricinfo

Feeds: Jamie Alter

http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/452325.html

[ajithfederer]

Story
Tendulkar breaks hearts, says no to World T20
CNN-IBNPosted on Mar 23, 2010 at 19:49

New Delhi: Sachin Tendulkar is a difficult man to dislodge; from the wicket and from his decision. As voices rose in unision urging him to play for India in the forthcoming T20 World Cup, the Master Blaster on Tuesday made it clear that he will stick to his stand of not playing Twenty2o internationals.


Former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar had told CNN-IBN last night that Tendulkar should make himself available for the ICC World T20 in the Caribbean next month, but Sachin is not biting. He told CNN-IBN that he will not play the tournament.

The team for T20 world cup will be selected on Friday and Tendulkar does not feature in the list of the 30 probables.


Tendulkar had decided in 2007 to not play Twenty20 internationals and he said he was going to stick to that stand and that he did not see any issue in this.


Tendulkar, who has only played T20 games in the IPL, has been in superlative form for the Mumbai team this season and it is his show in this format that has led many to ask him to reconsider his decision of not playing T20 internationals.


http://cricketnext.in.com/news/tendu.../47590-13.html

[ajithfederer]

Good decision sachin. Never play for T-20 BCCI side. MI-kku mattum velayandittu poitae irukalam.

.

[Yuvi]

Good decision sachin. Never play for T-20 BCCI side. MI-kku mattum velayandittu poitae irukalam.

.

madhiyadhor vaasal midhikaadhae

[ajithfederer]

Aaloo

It's Tendulkar who backed out of t-20 Int's since wc 2007. Avanga eppovume kooptitu dhan irukaanga.

[ajithfederer]

IPL 2010: Sachin Tendulkar and other golden oldies have chased my blues away with sublime cricket

By Ayaz Memon Cricket Last updated: March 23rd, 2010

Sachin Tendulkar hits the ball away for four runs yesterday (Photo: Getty)

The blues have vanished. I am less wistful about what cricket used to be from the time the previous blog was written less than 24 hours ago.

It didn’t take much, actually, to get the mood upbeat. In Monday night’s high profile match between Mumbai and Kolkata, Sachin Tendulkar played a sublime straight drive off Shane Bond in the first over itself to send the capacity crowd in raptures. By the time he won the match for Mumbai with an unbeaten 71, the entire city had gone delirious and I was in the swing of T20 madness again.

There was a beauty to Tendulkar’s batsmanship that belied the hurly-burly of T20 cricket. He could, in fact, have been playing in a Test match, such was the technical correctness of his tenure in the middle. The straight drive apart, he played a couple of silken cover drives and two dainty flicks off the Kiwi pace ace, most of which found the fence without being hit by too much power.

Tendulkar not only timed his shots exquisitely, but also found gaps in the field unerringly. There was little of the kind of manic hitting one usually sees in T20 cricket, though his young India teammates Ishant Sharma must’ve felt the impact of two bludgeoning blows to mid-wicket off deliveries pitched on the off stump or thereabouts. Even these hoicks were well-placed, aiming for the gap rather than clearing the fence.

Indeed, Tendulkar did not hit a single six in his innings of 71. Against Delhi too in an earlier match, he had scored 63 without a six hit. Yet, in both these matches, he had the best strike rate amongst batsmen from either side nonetheless. When you consider that opposing teams have had such uninhibited strokeplayers as Sehwag, Dilshan, De Viliers and Gayle, the genius of Tendulkar comes across more emphatically. .

What has emerged after watching Tendulkar in this IPL is that fundamental batting skills have a place in T20. While it is imperative to improvise, there is no need for total compromise. Mindless slogging may work every once in a while, but more often than not, true-blue quality is likely to succeed.

Tendulkar’s form over the past 7-8 months has been so magnificent that people have been wondering whether he has not got a third wind. Having seen him from the time he made his international debut in 1989, one can only say that he seems to have turned the clock back 10-12 years back when he was considered to be at his peak. Now he seems to be at the pinnacle of his form, and in all three formats: Tests, ODIs and T20.

Interestingly, Tendulkar leads the charge of the Golden Oldies in this edition of the IPL too. Jacques Kallis, Matt Hayden, Adam Gilchrist, Chaminda Vaas, Shane Warne, Anil Kumble and Muttiah Muralitharan, along with Andrew Symonds and Viru Sehwag (not Golden Oldies yet, but veterans nonetheless) are some of the other players who have made a more striking impact than most of the younger players.

This tells me that even in T20 – considered to be the arena for young arms, legs and lungs, experience and acumen – the value of experience and acumen may actually be greater.

Which makes me feel good and wear my own years more lightly.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/sport/a...-sublime-play/

[VinodKumar's]

Kumble's candid camera !!!

“Sachin as Gabbar Singh! This was part of a team-building exercise in 2008 where a bunch of us picked the movie as our theme.”

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/2...4692375798.jpg

This was a part of a team building exercise in 2008 where a bunch of us picked the movie Sholay as our theme. Sachin was Gabbar!

http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/862...4692375798.jpg

“The party after Sachin’s 35th Test century in 2005. The cake was brought in by the team. Sachin will always inspire us.”

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/3466/...9692375798.jpg