Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar - A Man or Myth?

He is no less than the God in the Subcontinent. He is regarded as a living legend, as a live encyclopedia of cricket. He is the idol for many young cricketers. He has set benchmarks for himself to beat it and also for others to beat it. If you want to commit a error, then commit it when this LITTLE MASTER is batting.

He is none other than Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.

Domestic Career:

Being inspired by India’s world cup triumph in 1983, He began his cricketing carrer with a bang early in his school days. In Azad Maidan Trophy in Februaury 1988, Sachin and his very own friend Vinod Kambli shared a record unbroken stand of 664 for third wicket while playing for their school Sharadhasram against St.Xaviers. Sachin remained 326 not out at the end of the match.

Even his maiden first class season was awesome. Watever he touched has turned to be gold. Scored Centuies in the maiden match of each of Indian Domestic Tournament, Viz – Ranji Trophy, Irani Trophy, Duleep Trophy.

• Sachin scored 100* for Mumbai against Gujarat in his Ranji debut season 1988-89 to become only the second youngest player then with 15 years and 232 days.
• He scored 103* for Rest of India against Delhi at Delhi in Irani Trophy debut season 1989-90 season.
• He scored 152 for West Zone against East Zone at Guwahati in 1990-91 Duleep Trophy debut season.

Man In white:

When he debuted for Team India in test, he was only the third youngest player (16 years, 205 days ) to do so. The other two were Mushtaq Mohammed (15 years and 125 days) and Aaqib Javeed (16 years and 189 days). With the tag of leading run scorer in Test, He is only second Indian after Sunil Gavaskar after scoring 10,000 runs.

Tendulkar scored his maiden century in 1990.He was only second youngest cricketer then to achieve this feat. Mushtag Mohammed was the youngest player in the history of test cricket. He scored a ton in early 1990. However now he has been pushed down to third by Mohamed Ashraful in 2001-02 calender.

He made himself a “World Figure” before he completed 20 years. He had already scored 5 centuries then. This unique feat is yet to be achieved by any cricketer in the history of test cricket.

On December 2005, in a Test Match against Sri Lanka, he achieved a unique feat of most test centuries then (35 then) surpassing the count of original MASTER Sunil Gavaskar (34). He currently has 48 test centuries under his belt. Aussie Skipper Ricky Ponting is next in list with 39 test centuries. He just 6 shy of 100 international centuries with 46 in One day internationals. He is first cricketer to score 50 international centuries.

When we take into account of 50 plus test scores, it again this man who tops the list. With 48 test centuries and 55 fifties under his belt, he currently has 103 fifty plus scores. Its again Ricky Ponting, who is second in the list with 91 fifty plus scores.

On January 3, 2007 Sachin edged a run to score 5751 test runs away from home surpassing Brian Lara (5736). However he achieved in 75 away tests while Lara achieved in 66 tests.

In 2008-09 Border Gavaskar Trophy, Sachin guided Peter Siddle towars thirdman to score run to surpass Brian Lara (11,972) as a leading run scorer in Test cricket.

Although he begun his career as No 5 batsmen, he batted for India at No 4 position. Incidentally once when Matthew Hayden was asked Sachin Tendulkar, he said “I have seen the GOD. He bats at number 4 for India in tests.” He is again top in the leaderboard for scoring most number of runs in test cricket at number four positon. He has scored 11,534 runs with 42 centuries and 46 fifties.

He is only such player who easily gel with others. He has been involved in many partnerships. He and Rahul Dravid has involved in 18 hundred plus partnerships in tests. They holds the record for most centuries by any pair. He has been involved in 17 double hundred partnerships.

He is only player to aggregate 1000 runs against 7 different test playing nations. Moreover he has scored centuries against all test playing nations. He was third cricketer then to achieve this feat after Former Aussie Skipper Steve Waugh and Current Indian Team Coach and Mr.fitness Gary Kirsten.

On August 3, 2010 by appearing in a test match against Srilanka, Sachin have become the most capped test player in tests (169) overcoming Steve Waugh (168).

Sachin further have a unique record of having been in the winning side in 56 matches while playing for India. He also has a dissimal record of being in loosing side in 45 matches when playing for India.

When coming to captaincy, He is not that good in it. He won India the inaugural Border Gavaskar trophy in a one-off match at Delhi. He also holds the record for highest individual score by any Indian Captain by scoring 217 against New Zealand in 1999-00. The previous record was held by Sunil Gavaskar (205 ).

Man in Blue:

Sachin has been considered as “Most Destructive Batsmen of this Era” in One Day International. When he debuted for Team India at the age of 16 years and 238 days, he was only second youngest cricketer to do so. Only Aaqib Javeed debuted younger than Sachin at he age of 16 years and 127 days.

Having scored 17,598 odd runs then in One Day Internationals, he is currently the leading run scorer in ODIs. He scored those runs at a stunning average of 45.12.

He holds record for most number of centuries(46) and most number of half centuries(93) in one day internationals, the most by any batsman. He is only 6 shy of 100 international centuries(46 + 48) and 1 shy of 150 international half centuries(93 + 56). Besides that he has been dimissed 24 times in the range 90-99.(17 in ODIs and 7 in tests). On one occasion,he remained not out on 96.

He once scored back-to-back centuries at Sarjah, out of which one is the final against Australia. He scored a flawless century to guide India home. He was brutal against Shane Warne in that match. Warne himself accepted “I’ll bowl with my helmets on. I fear that he would down the pitch and hit me for a six over my head.”

On February 24, 2010 when he directed C.Langveldt to point to score a run, he began the only batsmen to score 200* in one day internationals. He scored in 147 balls. He have three 175 plus scores and five 150 plus scores now.

Sachin begun his career as a middle order batsman. Once in a match against New Zealand, he was promoted to open the innings when India was chasing 145 runs. He scored a 40 ball 82, which is even now considered as one of few aggressive innings of then time. Since then he has scored 14,482 runs till now as a opener with 41 hundreds and 72 fifties in 318 innings.

Besides being a batsman, he is a descent bowler. He has scalped 200 plus victims. Further he has captured 5 wickets in a match twice. He is the first Indian to score a century and to capture 4 wickets in a match. He did it against Australia at Dhaka on October 28 ,1998.

As said earlier Sachin is the one who could easily gel with others. He along with Saurav Ganguly formed a attacking opener pair for India in ODIs. They scored 6609 runs with 136 matches with 21 centuries and 23 half centuries. He along with Rahul Dravid involved in highest partenerships in ODIs. This pair scored 331 runs against New Zealand for second wicket in 1999-00 at Hyderabad.

Sachin has scored 1000 runs in a calendar year 7 times . He scored in the following years 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2007.

Sachin, till date has appeared in 442 matches in ODIs for India. He is currently second in the lists. Sanath Jayasurya till date has appeared in 444 matches.

Sachin was not good in captaincy even in ODIs. However he is only Indian Captain to score a century in ODI captaincy debut. He scored 110 against Sri Lanka at Columbo RPS. He won India a 4-1 ODI series Victory against Pakisthan in Toronto in 1997

He holds a awesome record of Most Man-of-the-Match awards(60) and Most Man-of-the-series awards(16) by any cricketer.

World Cup Campaign:

Tendulkar has scored the most number of runs in World Cup history. He has scored 1796 runs at a stunning average of 59.87 with 13 fifties and 4 centuries with the highest being 152 against Namibia in 2003 world cup. He also holds a record for scoring most runs in a single edition of a World cup. He scored a mamath 673 runs in 2003 world cup.

On the whole, he has scored the most international runs by any cricketer inclusive of all formats. He scored 31,350 runs till date with the bulk of them against Australia(5,753) at an average of 50.46 with 19 centuries and 25 fifties.

Too close yet too far:

Although he is considered as one of the all time greats of cricket, there are few feathers that Sachin is yet to achieve.

• Sachin has scored only 6018 runs in home soil. He is third in the list next to Ricky Ponting(6790) and Brian Lara (6217). Sachin is yet to top that list.
• Sachin is yet to score a triple hundered in Tests.
• Sachin is yet to score a century in each innings of a Test Match.
• Sachin has capped 442 ODIs, two shy of Sanath Jayasuriya (444*) .Sachin is yet to top that list.
• Sachin is yet to aggregate 500 runs in a series. His best has been 493 runs against Australia in 2007-08.
• Sachin is yet to be part of world cup winning team.

Quotes Unplugged:

The following are the few quotes about Sachin Tendulkar.

• Don Bradman, Australia: “Once When I watch him play, I told my wife he bats just like me.”
• Matthew Hayden, Australia: “I have seen the GOD. He bats at number 4 for India in tests.”
• Brian Lara, West Indies: “If Cricket is a Religion, then Sachin is the only God”
• Allan Border, Australia: “Its Scary! Where the hell do we bowl to him.”
• Anil Kumble, India: “I am fortunate that I have to bowl to him only in nets”
• Mahendra Singh Dhoni. India: “He has scored 16,000 runs. I have not even faced 16,000 balls.”
• Andy Flower, Zimbabwe: “What we need is Ten Tendulkar!”

"Sometime stones [are] thrown at you and you have to convert those into milestones"

Those are the words said by the legend himself.. When I thought of writing about him, even a day was not enough to collect informations about him.. Man...He is really a true legend...

Wish he achieves everything that is yet to be achieved by him in the game of cricket and in his personal life,

Craziest Indian Cricket Fan,

Ragul