India reached finals on 11 more occasions after the 98-99 finals against Zimbabwe in Sharjah excluding the on-going triseries. No wonder Sachin has to carry this remark for the rest of his life. Very unfortunate statistic for The Maestro.
RE:Nearly a decade
by YoBro on Mar 03, 2008 06:01 AM Permalink
On most of those occasions, they got to the finals riding on his performances...so these statistics are just what they are - statistics.
But, at the end of the day, fact remains that he has to carry that remark for the rest of his life not withstanding what he has done at various other stages of a tournament or series. That's just very unfortunate - like Ivan Lendl failing to win Wimbledon and Boris Becker failing to win French Open. But Sachin still can continue for another couple of years and that way he will have several opportunities to redeem himself from his less than ordinary performances in finals and crunch matches while chasing.
RE:Nearly a decade
by kishore giduturi on Mar 03, 2008 09:18 AM Permalink
yo .. you guys are so blind that even after a good performance you cannot believe your eyes, what a pity !!!
Whether yesterday's innings was a good innings or not isn't the point of contention. He played many such good innings in the past is also not the point of contention. Just trying to put things into perspective - a filter called finals and chases, specifically, over the past decade or so. Sachin remains one of my all time favourites on par with Brian Lara, Kapil Dev, Rahul Dravid, Sir Richard Hadlee, Wasim Akram and Allan Donald. I would be extremely pleased if Sachin can continue for another couple of years and redeem himself from his less than ordinary performances in some particular match situations over the past decade. If he fails to do that, he has to carry that remark, unfortunately, for the rest of his life. One swallow doesn't make the summer. I am just saying that the numbers are against Sachin in finals and chases. Performance, numbers, half-centuries in a winning cause, centuries in a winning cause, opponents, and match situations etc are our basis to praise Sachin. I too am using all those parameters and seeing how Sachin measures upto them in some contexts. Unfortunately, he lags behind himself by many a mile. Kishore, we can't just look at things that are to our liking. We can't make the mistake of branding somebody as The Greatest without taking a tough test of him. Atleast, that is what I understood from many of our sacred scriptures - greatest warrior, greatest disciple etc. The word Greatest can't be conferred upon anybody so easily.
