Sachin Jinxed against Pakistan
Sachin Tendulkar is the most prolific batsman the world has ever seen, having the world record for the most centuries scored by any batsman. A record which will not be easy to break and would probably stand for decades to come. He has to date scored 48 test centuries and 46 one day centuries which makes a total of 93 centuries in both forms of the game. For a player of his class and calibre, one can easily say that he has been the most successful piece of arsenal the Indians could come up with. However, somehow his firepower failed to have an impact against Pakistan.
Out of the 93 centuries scored, he has scored 5 against Pakistan in both formats of the game. However, in 3 out of those 5 matches played against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 India went on to lose the contest between arch rivals. The question then remains. Why has Sachin’s fire power failed against Pakistan?
The answer to that might lie in the bouncers that Sachin had to face when he made his test debut against Pakistan at the early age of 16 and had to face Wasim and Waqar. The two W’s were the best the world had seen as the opening bowling pair and Sachin was made to suffer the wrath of the bouncers of Wasim. This would wreck havok on his shaky nerves as he made his debut; Waqar and his lightning fast deliveries were coincidentally making their debut during the same match. He was said to have taken alot of blows on his body in that match.
It was in the same series in the final test at http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sialkot-c842 where he was hit on the nose by a bouncer and blood started to gush forth. He might be known as the little master, but was surely outdone by Pakistani bowlers who gave him a little more than he could chew.
"The first ball I faced from Wasim was a bouncer. I expected a yorker with the next ball, but got a bouncer again. The third ball too was a bouncer when I was again prepared for a yorker for which he was famous. And the fourth ball, the last of the over, too was a bouncer and I told myself, welcome to Test cricket.”
The next visit worth mentioning is the Indian teams visit of Pakistan in 2004, where they played a series of One day matches. Shoaib Akhtar was said to be on his peak, but Sachin hit Pakistani bowlers all around the ground to score a whopping 141 runs. He had unleashed his magic and the Indian’s would have thought that his ton would do the trick but unfortunately for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 it could not save India from a defeat against Pakistan.
It seems as though Sachin Tendulkar gets jinxed when playing against Pakistan, for his centuries seem to have little impact on the Indian team’s performance as a whole (who fail to give a winning performance in most cases). It could surely be said that this is the 'curious case of Sachin against Pakistan'.
In Test matches Sachin has scored 48 centuries, yet 29 times the Indian team failed to produce a favourable result. These test matches were either drawn or lost by India. This then makes the ordinary cricket fan ponder over the lethality of Indian cricket and its reliance on stars to help it win tournaments. Sachin has also equalled Brian Lara’s record of scoring 150 more than 19 times.
The little master, seems to play on in the cricketing world with his contemporaries having retired from international cricket many years ago. This might prove to be the best opportunity for a player of his class to improve his statistics even more, since there is no Wasim or Waqar to challenge him anymore. The dearth of great bowlers, might mean that the world will struggle against the master blaster, however for now Pakistan could cherish the fact that Sachin’s tons failed to make an impact for India and hope that Amir and Asif could continue the legacy of Wasim and Waqar.
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