Tendulkar was the best but Lara was a match-winner, says http://www.senore.com/Cricket/RT-Ponting-c2377 – Cricket News Update
Ricky Ponting, the former http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Brian-Charles-Lara-c48471 was more dangerous as he had the ability to change the course of a match single-handedly.
The great Australian cricketer announced his retirement from the sport before the start of the Perth Test against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757, which marked the end of an illustrious career, with the right-hander scoring more than 27 thousand runs at the highest stage of the game, including 71 centuries.
Most of the cricket analysts believe that Ponting, Tendulkar and Lara are the greatest batsmen of the modern era, having dominated different bowling attacks all around the world.
While expressing his views after his last international match, the former world cup winning captain expressed that Tendulkar was a nightmare for him as a captain, with the little-master having the ability to score towards all parts of a ground.
However, Ponting expressed that Lara, the former http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 captain, could take any bowling line-up apart on his day.
“I felt http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Chinnadupargea-Sachin-c50607 was the best player I played against, and that's coming from more of a captain's point of view as well, knowing he had so much success against us,” Ponting said. “But the other way to look at it is, I probably lost more sleep on the eve of games against Lara, because I knew he could singlehandedly win games for his team.”
As far as stats are concerned, no batsman even comes close to Tendulkar, who has more than 33 thousand international runs under his belt, with the help of 100 tons.
Ponting however, feels that winning matches for one’s country is more important than individual records and Lara was a genuine match-winner.
Tendulkar is often criticised by the sporting pundits due to his lack of ability to finish games for the Men in Blue.
“The way I judge players has always been on their ability to win games, and win games by themselves. Lara could certainly do that and he did it probably more than what Sachin's done for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750,” the former Aussie skipper added.
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