India vs. Pakistan: Sachin Tendulkar's worst innings in One Day cricket – ICC World Cup 2011
Sachin Tendulkar played a chancy innings against Pakistan; breaking a record of sorts with 4 drop catches and not making a century. The most anticipated match of the ICC World Cup 2011 between Pakistan and India is being played in Mohali and this match is turning out to be a complete “cracker” of a competition. India is batting first in this game and so far the match has fluctuated in the direction of both the teams.
The match had a brilliant balance of some terrific bowling by the Pakistanis and some aggressive batting by the Indian top-order batsmen. There were a lot of expectations from Tendulkar to play a crucial knock and help his side reach a competitive total in the match. Sachin did make a good score of 85 during his innings and helped his team to build a good foundation for the death overs.
Tendulkar’s innings can be termed as one of his worst, as it had more errors in it than positive points. He was dropped 4 times during his innings and one wonders how much butter the Pakistani fielders had on their fingers. First of all, Sachin did not look so positive at the start of the innings. He did strike a couple of handy boundaries in the beginning, but we did not see the killer punch in his batting in first 10 overs.
Tendulkar was not initiating the tempo at the start and was waiting for some loose deliveries to cash in on. He showed the first sign of vulnerability when he was given leg before by the umpire off the bowling of Saeed Ajmal. Tendulkar completely missed the flight and line of the bowler, but the ball was missing the leg stump and he was given not out after the review.
On 27 runs, Tendulkar pulled a shot to the mid-wicket region where he was dropped by Misbah-ul-Haq. Sachin capitalised on this missed opportunity and kept the score moving at a normal pace. He scored an odd boundary during the over’s, but did not show any real urge for runs in his innings.
Tendulkar, on 44, went for a loose delivery off Afridi on the off-side and gave a dolly to Younis Khan. The Indian batsman was lucky for a second time, as Younis dropped the catch. Sachin continued to place the ball in the gaps for singles, but did not show his usual magnificent batting style during his innings.
He seemed to be playing with great patience during his innings, but actually he was just capitalising on the most ordinary deliveries of the bowlers. It was just some average bowling by the Pakistanis, than some gutsy batting by Sachin.
Sachin continued to make runs in his innings and reached 68 off 83 balls. Again, he played a loose defensive shot, but was dropped by the usual suspect, Kamran Akmal. It was another pathetic shot from Tendulkar and luck was definitely favouring him in this important semi-final.
On 77, Tendulkar was dropped by Umar Akmal off the bowling of Mohammad Hafeez from another loose shot and an easy drop at the mid-wicket region.
Tendulkar himself was laughing over the plight of the Pakistani fielders and the dropped catches. Finally, he was brilliantly caught by Afridi off the bowling of Ajmal for 85 runs. It was an innings in which Tendulkar was gifted too many chances and in the end it did not deserve the applause which it received from the crowd in Mohali.
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