Elephant in the room

[cowboysfan]

Sachin's quest for his hundredth hundred is turning out to be a real pain for the team.He is batting unnaturally and his team mates are doing the same to accomodate him.He should play in the windies odis to get it out of the way if he doesnt get it in the next 3 innings because we cant have this drama again in Australia.

[Andrew Peter]

Sachin is indeed not playing his natural game but just because of one bad series in England he shouldnt be forced to play against minnows to reach his milestone . I would say he must skip the next match against Windies and turn up directly for the boxing day test in Australia . He already played a crucial knock in 2nd innings of the first test match so please dont say that he is turning out to be pain for the team .

[ganeshran]

What drama? The only drama that is being created is by the media and the fans. Sachin doesnt have control over them.

[cowboysfan]

i said this quest is turning out to be a pain,nobody can deny he is forcing it .

[carnish]

SACHIN.... i dont see him getting dat 100 till we play SRL in july 2012.... and dat z just because of the SRL bowling degradation of late

[saneindian]

What you call batting unnaturally is the "law of averages" catching up. Starting from the BD tour post 2007 WC till the SA series early this year, he had scored 4000+ runs in 40 odd tests. Law of averages had to catch up sometime, unfortunately it has done so when he is stuck on 99 100s.

[Yoda-esque]

What you call batting unnaturally is the "law of averages" catching up. Starting from the BD tour post 2007 WC till the SA series early this year' date=' he had scored 4000+ runs in 40 odd tests. Law of averages had to catch up sometime, unfortunately it has done so when he is stuck on 99 100s.[/quote'] I don't quite agree.Its cannot be coincidence..its definitely weighing on his mind. Once he gets it out of the way,he will play freely.

[CSK Fan]

people see what they want to see I guess. So its not the merit of the ball but the weight on sachin's mind?

[Number]

We should not be much worried about it. England tour was a disaster , not just for him but for everyone. We can't blame him for the entire team's failure. He played a match winning knock under pressure in difficult situation in the last game. 100th 100 will eventually come .

[ganeshran]

He looked in excellent nick in Kotla which was a challenging pitch and in Eden today as well. Does the milestone put pressure on him? - yes it does which it would do to everyone. Are there any easy solutions to this? - No. we will have to wait till it comes.

[akshayxyz]

people see what they want to see I guess. So its not the merit of the ball but the weight on sachin's mind?

Spot on. How many people noticed that Dravid choked 21 short of a major milestone... 13K runs. Or how many people keep track of other batsmen, as and when ever they approach milestones? In England also SRT looked in good touch - despite some toe injury he was managing, and viral in first test. Today also, he was playing decently - had he blocked endlessly instead of playing shots, then only one could have had some reason to say 100 was playing on his mind. He has been there long enough to know that this 100 is no different from 98 others (1st one is always tough) - you do not get to 99 w/o that kind of mindset.

[Yoda-esque]

Spot on. How many people noticed that Dravid choked 21 short of a major milestone... 13K runs. Or how many people keep track of other batsmen, as and when ever they approach milestones? In England also SRT looked in good touch - despite some toe injury he was managing, and viral in first test. Today also, he was playing decently - had he blocked endlessly instead of playing shots, then only one could have had some reason to say 100 was playing on his mind. He has been there long enough to know that this 100 is no different from 98 others (1st one is always tough) - you do not get to 99 w/o that kind of mindset.

I disagree here.You will know what I mean when he gets his 100 100s.

[akshayxyz]

^ haha because, he would be anyway back to 'form'... 100s come in pairs/series :)..

[akshayxyz]

ok someone tell me, is this 100th 100 can be more 'pressurizing' than 200 in ODI?? Have people forgotten how calm he looked in that innings - he has crossed so many 'never before' milestones, that it is hard to argue in favor of - it has to be playing on his mind.

[bhanu]

What you call batting unnaturally is the "law of averages" catching up. Starting from the BD tour post 2007 WC till the SA series early this year' date=' he had scored 4000+ runs in 40 odd tests. Law of averages had to catch up sometime, unfortunately it has done so when he is stuck on 99 100s.[/quote'] can u xplain me more bout law of average?

[Yoda-esque]

@Akshay : Nobody expected him to hit that 200.It came out of the blue so to speak. He did not have time to let that impending milestone sink in. When it finally came around,he slowed down and finally took a single for 200. Not anti-SRT or anything.Its just human psychology.

[Sachinism]

I haven't seen his batting today, I agree he has a tendency to get into his shell or become over-cautious when its unnecessary. But having seen his innings at Kotla, this is silly

[asterix]

Not seen his batting today, but saw the way he got out. Which clearly indicated me that hw was trying to score runs (an not getting onto a shell). He got out because he mistimed his shot. It was not that he went into a shell and got out defending. He got out before making 50. It was not that he was nearing his 100. Shyte happens. You guys are talking as if he never used to get out. Don't worry, he'll get there. Playing Devils Advocate (from a Kanspiracy Theory Specialist): He's actually deleberately getting out against a weaker team as he wants to score his 100 against a strong team like Australia (in Australia) to shut his critics up. If he scores here, against WI, people will still crib that he's a FTB and it was expeced that he'll score runs in SC against a weak team, exactly the way he has amassed all his runs so far... :P

[daryl1985]

Spot on. How many people noticed that Dravid choked 21 short of a major milestone... 13K runs. Or how many people keep track of other batsmen, as and when ever they approach milestones? In England also SRT looked in good touch - despite some toe injury he was managing, and viral in first test. Today also, he was playing decently - had he blocked endlessly instead of playing shots, then only one could have had some reason to say 100 was playing on his mind. He has been there long enough to know that this 100 is no different from 98 others (1st one is always tough) - you do not get to 99 w/o that kind of mindset.

Disagree. I think there is a noticeable difference when he approaches a milestone. He gets nervous but that is natural given the unrealistic expectations that millions and millions of fans have had of him in the last 20 odd years. He has had a few innings when he has looked in superb touch (2nd innings at Delhi) but he has looked scratchy more often recently than he has done in the last few years. Despite getting to his 200* against South Africa he also looked very nervous when he got into the 190's but fatigue may have been creeping in then. I may be seeing things but to me Sachin always looks nervous when approaching a milestone.

[vvvslaxman]

Not seen his batting today, but saw the way he got out. Which clearly indicated me that hw was trying to score runs (an not getting onto a shell). He got out because he mistimed his shot. It was not that he went into a shell and got out defending. He got out before making 50. It was not that he was nearing his 100. Shyte happens. You guys are talking as if he never used to get out. Don't worry, he'll get there. Playing Devils Advocate (from a Kanspiracy Theory Specialist): He's actually deleberately getting out against a weaker team as he wants to score his 100 against a strong team like Australia (in Australia) to shut his critics up. If he scores here, against WI, people will still crib that he's a FTB and it was expeced that he'll score runs in SC against a weak team, exactly the way he has amassed all his runs so far... :P

Not anymore