Sachin's 200*(147) is always better than Watson's 185*(96).

            388TH BLOG -->>

        I am unable to control myself whenever I think of writing about Cricket. This year, Cricket has shown us so many miracles that each time I hear anything about Cricket, I just go crazy and blah-blah over it. I find no other topic more interesting than Cricket. IPL fever is going on. Jacques Kallis has Orange Cap with him. Tendulkar is chasing him to give him a tough condition like the last year. Kallis and Tendulkar, both are such players that you can't miss even a single shot played by them. They have magnificent batting skill. I have always loved both of them just not because they bat furiously but because they have a calm and cool attitude while playing even the biggest inning of their career while you see Ponting and you will find an aggression on his face and a pride that it is only him who can do this and no one else. Hats off to Sachin Tendulkar and Jacques Kallis.

            I hope everyone of you remember the day when Sachin Tendulkar scored 200* of 147 balls. It happened on 24th February 2010. I still remember the day and date very clearly. I started playing cricket with my childhood friends when I was in 5th std because before that no one used to talk to me as I used to be very studious and boring. I got to know little bit about Cricket and its rules and regulations. I asked them with an innocent accent that what is the highest score made by any cricketer in a match? Saurabh, one of my childhood friend used to know all the information and records of Cricket and he replied with a confidence," Saeed Anwar's 194 and that too against our India". This one sentence became a Himalaya in my mind. Whenever I used to see any match and saw a cricketer completing his 100 and getting off from the field till 120 runs or maximum 150, I used to think that how can someone score 194 in a match. The only question which used to come in my mind every time since then was that will anyone be able to break his record and score 195 runs. I still never thought of 200 runs or a Double-century by a player. But the day Tendulkar did it, I started believing that he is a human form of God and I made him my idol right from 24th February, 2010 and started writing several articles on his every performance, either on my blog or somewhere else on any other sites. 

              Yesterday, on 11th April, 2011, Shane Watson played against Bangladesh while batting in the second inning while chasing 229 runs and scored 185* in 96 balls. He created the World Record of highest numbers of Six in a match i.e. 15 Sixes. He broke the record of 12 Sixes. With this average, he would have scored 350+ with 29 sixes. But how can we calculate this? If a team hits 6 Sixes in the very first over and the rain wipes out the match, can we predict that if they would have batted till the 50th over, they would have scored 1800 Runs? Obviously No. Watson could have been out at 186th run. Right? So predicting that he could have scored a Triple century or a Double Century is a rubbish. People even said that he had chances to break Sachin's record of Double Century and creating a new history. 

              
              Cricket is such a game where everything is unpredictable. Lara scored 400*. After that some cricketers have managed to surpass the milestone of a Triple century in an inning but no one could touch his 400*. Therefore, Lara remains the best player of Test match with the highest runs (in an inning) on the board. I still believe that the 200* of Sachin Tendulkar is greater than Shane Watson's 185*. You may say that Watson was playing in the second innings therefore he failed to cross the record of Sachin Tendulkar. If this is what you have to say then there are many batsmen whose performances can be said better than 200* on this basis. Shahid Afridi have scored the second-fastest 50 in 2 matches by completed it in 18 balls both the times and the third-fastest 50 too in a match by scoring it in 19 balls. So, if he would have played with the same rate, he would have touched 200 in at most 80 balls. So, is his strike better than Watson's 185 of 96 balls?

              Coming to the fastest-century, Shahid Afridi did it in 37 balls and he has also scored the 4th fastest century in 45 balls. So, with this rate, he would have scored 200 in 74 balls and 90 balls only respectively. So, is his strike better than Sachin's 200* or Watson's 185* ? No. So for me, Sachin's 200* still remains a lot better than Watson's 185* in 96 balls with 24 overs still remaining to bat. There are many reasons but I would like to point out few here to pellucid little of your's doubt if there are any. Sachin's 200* came against the champion team - South Africa having World-class bowlers while Watson's 185* is against a small team- Bangladesh. Sachin's 200* came in the pressure as he had a houseful stadium in his home-country - India while Watson did in an empty stadium without any pressure in Dhaka. Sachin did it in his crucial age of 36 when most players retire from the game while he did it in his young age of 29. Sachin did it on the Ground of full-size while Watson did it on a small ground. Watson made a record of highest number of Sixes in an inning i.e.15 while Sachin made two records of highest number of Fours in an inning i.e. 25 and also making the highest runs in an inning in ODI match.

               I have many more points to prove that Watson's 185* is nothing in front of Sachin's 200* but I do agree that hitting those runs in such less balls is really an inning. I also bow down to Watson because hitting 15 Sixes is a miraculous effort. I also bow down to him because he raised the bar of batting once again for every cricketer. Many of you may think that I am insecure after this inning of Watson but this is not the case. I just tried to analyze both the innings and find out which one is the better. I saw Sachin's inning's highlight for 4 times from the DVD I have and Watson's inning's highlight for 4 times on NEO Cricket and concluded that the one from Sachin is an interesting inning while the one from Watson is just a normal inning as we see many a times in Cricket.

              I don't want to boast more about Tendulkar now. This much is enough for the day. ;-)

            Thanks.

ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU