When India play mighty Australia in the second quarter-final of ICC World Cup 2011, the biggest interest among fans in the last league game will be whether Sachin Tendulkar, the most decorated cricketer of all time, will score his 100th international century.
The maestro has 48 centuries in 449 One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and 51 in 177 Test matches, but none of the one- day tons have come at the MA Chidambaram Stadium here. So, it will be only fitting for the Mumbaikar to become the world’s first player to reach the landmark at a venue where he hasn’t performed as well as he has done on many of the 95 others.
Tendulkar, 37, has managed only 188 runs in five ODIs at the MA Chidambaram Stadium and his highest score has been 68. Even the senior pro is aware that his Chennai fans deserve to see a 24- carat innings from him.
With probably that in mind, on Saturday he had a long and serious batting stint at the pitch adjacent to the main one, even practising reverse sweeps — a shot that he rarely plays.
In 38 ODIs against the West Indies, Tendulkar has made four centuries with a tally of 1,571 runs at 54.17. Like all his team ates, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni too admitted that he was lucky to have a player like Tendulkar to play alongside.
India captain Mahendra Singh Singh said that team along with Sachin are focused more towards getting ahead in the competition rather than thinking about the records. Dhoni feels that the inexplicable batting collapse against South Africa & West Indies was an aberration and his batsmen are experienced enough to realise their mistakes and refrain from committing them again against Australia here on Thursday.
Dhoni refrained from admonishing his batsmen for capitulation where India lost the last nine wickets for a mere 29 runs in nine overs. South Africa won that game by three wickets with two balls to spare.
1 comments:
best of luck sir india ko jita do world cup hamen dila do
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