Elephant in the room

[Cric_is_Life]

He is in good form. Media is just creating too much hype for his 100th ton. His 76 in the last test was a match winning innings and he was the top scorer in that test match for India. But still media is showing it as a failure. I am sick of the articles like 'Sachin fails again to reach his 100th ton'. :((

[bulbul]

i said this quest is turning out to be a pain' date='nobody can deny he is forcing it .[/quote'] i doubt he will get one more chance in this match..... May be next match or May be OZ series :)

[bulbul]

Not anymore

he deliberately avoided WI series to get a Century in Lords test... :) seems he have to get one against WI only...

[Karan114]

Its just the hype for Sachin's hundredth from the media which makes us think that. As we saw at Delhi, he can still make important runs. Sachin scored a Test hundred 12 innings ago - look at how long some of the other guys have gone without a hundred: Dhoni: 31 innings Laxman: 28 innings Gambhir: 27 innings Yuvraj: 26 innings Sehwag: 17 innings

[saneindian]

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.

Have you also seen his legs shaking due to nervousness when approaching a milestone? :winky:

[bulbul]

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.

so to defend one legend you have to call another a choker... Lol cant take even one post without getting violent :winky:

[bulbul]

Its just the hype for Sachin's hundredth from the media which makes us think that. As we saw at Delhi, he can still make important runs. Sachin scored a Test hundred 12 innings ago - look at how long some of the other guys have gone without a hundred: Dhoni: 31 innings Laxman: 28 innings Gambhir: 27 innings Yuvraj: 26 innings Sehwag: 17 innings

ok now u brought half the team :two_thumbs_up:

[CSK Fan]

@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.

1) He did not slow down, you are wrong 2) The ball he took a songle of was extremely full and he had the strike after a long time

[Yoda-esque]

1) He did not slow down, you are wrong 2) The ball he took a songle of was extremely full and he had the strike after a long time

Last 20 runs took him 15-17 balls..Still fast..but slower compared to his original strike rate in the match.Maybe he was tired. Anyways,The point I was trying to make is that he noticeably slows down when approaching landmarks, which means that it preys on his psyche.

[akshayxyz]

so to defend one legend you have to call another a choker... Lol cant take even one post without getting violent :winky:

My comment was sarcastic - your detector failed you! It was to highlight, had it been SRT - it would have been in newspapers, how yet again he has choked near 13K mark... there would have been 10 threads on ICF, revisiting SRT's choking legacy, pulling out numbers from their asses. @yoda-esque. yes, regardless of stature/experience, everyone gets anxious moments. But looking from the way he was playing in England and in Delhi - there was no hint of it, in this case. Also, I believe - after playing for 20 years, crossing 1000s of milestones - he is not the one to be bothered by what newspapers write. It is not like, every time he walks in, he has a checklist to tick.

[Trichromatic]

Hate this hype. There is nothing wrong with hype. But what happened after last test was ridiculous. He played a very good inning. Scored 76 in 4th inning and helped India to win the match. I was happy to see his inning. But when I checked reaction of media, I was surprised. People were as if it was big failure. At least give proper credit. :hitler:

[ganeshran]

Last 20 runs took him 15-17 balls..Still fast..but slower compared to his original strike rate in the match.Maybe he was tired. Anyways,The point I was trying to make is that he noticeably slows down when approaching landmarks, which means that it preys on his psyche.

Nope. He was 168 off 128 balls which is an SR of 131. Over the next 19 balls he scored 32 runs and ended up with a SR of 136. He actually sped up in those final overs. It just looked slow because Dhoni was on a Blitzkreig on the other end and SRT was giving him the strike

[akshayxyz]

^ And IIRC Dhoni did say that in the middle SRT was getting fatigued, and hence Dhoni took most of the strike and played big shots.

[zen]

100th 100 is just another number which you get to as a result of playing tons of games .... I would have liked it if Sachin were focused on having a test avg close to 70 :--D

[ganeshran]

^ And IIRC Dhoni did say that in the middle SRT was getting fatigued, and hence Dhoni took most of the strike and played big shots.

Also, It was better on SRT's part to give Dhoni the strike because he is a power hitter and great finisher. The last 11 overs involved only 4 dots to SRT. at no point was the strike hogged or unnecessary shots attempted to get to the milestone

[bulbul]

My comment was sarcastic - your detector failed you! It was to highlight, had it been SRT - it would have been in newspapers, how yet again he has choked near 13K mark... there would have been 10 threads on ICF, revisiting SRT's choking legacy, pulling out numbers from their asses. @yoda-esque. yes, regardless of stature/experience, everyone gets anxious moments. But looking from the way he was playing in England and in Delhi - there was no hint of it, in this case. Also, I believe - after playing for 20 years, crossing 1000s of milestones - he is not the one to be bothered by what newspapers write. It is not like, every time he walks in, he has a checklist to tick.

u dont even have a detector :winky:

[desi.boy]

100th 100 is just another number which you get to as a result of playing tons of games .... I would have liked it if Sachin were focused on having a test avg close to 70 :--D

It would be comical if dravid happens to overtake his tally of test runs. won't be a blot on the man's greatness, but a blow to Sachin-fanatics defo.:cantstop:

[carnish]

Dravid will overtake sachin in centuries if both play till next WC...:--D

[SachDan]

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

Dravid will overtake sachin in centuries if both play till next WC...:--D

Wow, what brilliant reading of the game! cricketing world should thank ICF for finding a worthy successor to Peter Roebuck so quickly.

[CSK Fan]

100th 100 is just another number which you get to as a result of playing tons of games .... I would have liked it if Sachin were focused on having a test avg close to 70 :--D

Wrong!. There is a reason no player has been able to sustain such a high average for so long. There is a reason Ponting came down to 52 average from 60. Same with Dravid. People speak of playing tons of games as if its not a big thing. The reason no one has able to play tons of games is because no one has been good enough, only Sachin has. As for an average of 70+, not possible in this era. If Ponting had stopped playing at his peak, he would have averaged 60. But thats not possible. Playing fewer games in your peak will always give you higher average than playing lots of game as the law of averages get more chance of catching up to you