Hi Cricket Lovers
23rd December will be remembered as a day when the GOD of Cricket announced his retirement from ODI's where his 18,426 runs is almost 35 % more than Ricky Ponting's Aggregate. He has so many records to his name that I will have to keep writing this blog for the next few days to list all of them. I will not go on listing them but will always think of him to have unparalleled place as one of the best ODI cricketers in World. As many cricketing greats have rated Don Bradman in Test cricket as the best i will rate Sachin with the same pedigree in ODI's.
When Sachin started playing ODI's on Dec 18th 1989 versus Pakistan and scored a duck even he believed that it will be his last innings in the shorter format but when he showed his class in only his 2nd Test innings with a brave 59 against the likes of Wasim Akram, Imran Khan and Abdul Qadir. I was just 7 then so don't remeber watching him play but i did saw him first on TV playing during his Maiden Aussie tour in 1991-92 when I saw him play against the likes of Mcdermott and Ried i really felt that this guy was good.
I still remember him paying attacking innings when he was asked to bat against the kiwis in 1994 for the first time when he score a 49 ball 82 and won us the match effortlessly. I guess it was the turning point of his career and also India Cricket. He never looked back after that. I still remember the days when I and many other cricket fans just watched cricket because of Sachin and we used to lose our hopes of India winning the match. India in the 90's rarely won when Sachin did not play well. I can never forget his last over versus the South Africa in the Hero Cup semis which he won for us even when they needed only 6 to win off the last over. Not to forget the back to back centuries in the Sharjah cup(1998) against the Aussies to beat them hands down.
By 2003 when he single handedly took India to the World Cup finals but could not make the dream of Indian repeating the 1983 heroics again he had broken almost all the ODI's record till then. I still remember him feeling so dejected even when he won the Man of the series trophy. I always thought that it was a brave decision on his part to not represent India in the 2007 T20 World Cup with Dravid and Ganguly also opting out too. It worked wonders as the Young Indian team under MS Dhoni won the inaugural T20 world cup in style.He had to work hard in the next 2 years till 2009 but still was good enough to play but then year 2010 came when he became the 1st Man in ODI's to score a double century with an unbeaten 200 against the strong attack of South Africans. He amassed 1562 runs in that Calender year which is the record which no other batsman has come near till date.He also deservingly received the Cricketer of the year by ICC for 2010.
He anyway had sparingly played ODI's till 2011 World Cup where he again was back to his best with centuries against England and South Africa and a Match saving 85 against the Pakistanis in the Semi Finals. I still remember being the audience with my brother, the pin drop silence of the Wankhede Stadium (2nd April 2011) when Sachin got out on 18 off 14 balls. It was very silent for at least the next 10 overs or so but when we saw that 6 hit by Dhoni and then Sachin being carried on the shoulders of his team mates all around the ground it was a wonderful experience.
Sachin could have announced his retirement from ODI's as soon as he score his 100 international hundred but was waiting for almost 9 months to do the same I am not sure but it could be anything but his everlasting love for this Game of Cricket. Speaking for myself alone here i wanted him to play in the 2015 World Cup but he wishes Indian Cricket to have enough time from now to fill his place with a replacement and be ready to defend the title in 2015. I am surely going to MISS him in ODI's as i still think he had some more to give to Indian Cricket even though his form off late has not been that good but that happens with every cricketer in their career. Adding to that none of them has had a career spanning over 23 years of cricket with over 33k runs in all the forms of cricket.
I wish him luck for the upcoming Home Test series against the Aussies and hope we see him back in form and retire from this game on a high.
Cheers to that !!!!!
I will be back with more.
Till then Bye.
23rd December will be remembered as a day when the GOD of Cricket announced his retirement from ODI's where his 18,426 runs is almost 35 % more than Ricky Ponting's Aggregate. He has so many records to his name that I will have to keep writing this blog for the next few days to list all of them. I will not go on listing them but will always think of him to have unparalleled place as one of the best ODI cricketers in World. As many cricketing greats have rated Don Bradman in Test cricket as the best i will rate Sachin with the same pedigree in ODI's.
When Sachin started playing ODI's on Dec 18th 1989 versus Pakistan and scored a duck even he believed that it will be his last innings in the shorter format but when he showed his class in only his 2nd Test innings with a brave 59 against the likes of Wasim Akram, Imran Khan and Abdul Qadir. I was just 7 then so don't remeber watching him play but i did saw him first on TV playing during his Maiden Aussie tour in 1991-92 when I saw him play against the likes of Mcdermott and Ried i really felt that this guy was good.
I still remember him paying attacking innings when he was asked to bat against the kiwis in 1994 for the first time when he score a 49 ball 82 and won us the match effortlessly. I guess it was the turning point of his career and also India Cricket. He never looked back after that. I still remember the days when I and many other cricket fans just watched cricket because of Sachin and we used to lose our hopes of India winning the match. India in the 90's rarely won when Sachin did not play well. I can never forget his last over versus the South Africa in the Hero Cup semis which he won for us even when they needed only 6 to win off the last over. Not to forget the back to back centuries in the Sharjah cup(1998) against the Aussies to beat them hands down.
By 2003 when he single handedly took India to the World Cup finals but could not make the dream of Indian repeating the 1983 heroics again he had broken almost all the ODI's record till then. I still remember him feeling so dejected even when he won the Man of the series trophy. I always thought that it was a brave decision on his part to not represent India in the 2007 T20 World Cup with Dravid and Ganguly also opting out too. It worked wonders as the Young Indian team under MS Dhoni won the inaugural T20 world cup in style.He had to work hard in the next 2 years till 2009 but still was good enough to play but then year 2010 came when he became the 1st Man in ODI's to score a double century with an unbeaten 200 against the strong attack of South Africans. He amassed 1562 runs in that Calender year which is the record which no other batsman has come near till date.He also deservingly received the Cricketer of the year by ICC for 2010.
He anyway had sparingly played ODI's till 2011 World Cup where he again was back to his best with centuries against England and South Africa and a Match saving 85 against the Pakistanis in the Semi Finals. I still remember being the audience with my brother, the pin drop silence of the Wankhede Stadium (2nd April 2011) when Sachin got out on 18 off 14 balls. It was very silent for at least the next 10 overs or so but when we saw that 6 hit by Dhoni and then Sachin being carried on the shoulders of his team mates all around the ground it was a wonderful experience.
Sachin could have announced his retirement from ODI's as soon as he score his 100 international hundred but was waiting for almost 9 months to do the same I am not sure but it could be anything but his everlasting love for this Game of Cricket. Speaking for myself alone here i wanted him to play in the 2015 World Cup but he wishes Indian Cricket to have enough time from now to fill his place with a replacement and be ready to defend the title in 2015. I am surely going to MISS him in ODI's as i still think he had some more to give to Indian Cricket even though his form off late has not been that good but that happens with every cricketer in their career. Adding to that none of them has had a career spanning over 23 years of cricket with over 33k runs in all the forms of cricket.
I wish him luck for the upcoming Home Test series against the Aussies and hope we see him back in form and retire from this game on a high.
Cheers to that !!!!!
I will be back with more.
Till then Bye.
No comments:
Post a Comment