Reliving Tendulkar v. Warne

[Mr. Wicket]

Hey ticz, gotta disagree there. A few drops doesn't make a bad knock. It's a fault from the fielding side, shouldn't be a knock on a good batsman. Batsmen all make mistakes, and the difference between a faint edge and a play and a miss, or a dropped catch and a miscued hit that just evades a fielder is just a few mm (and something like this happens in almost every innings - I've never seen a truly flawless inning). That argument's a lot like saying Sehwag's 309 was not a great innings because of the drops and chances he offered, or that Dravid's 148 at Leeds in 02 wasn't great because of how many errors (plays and misses, edges and lucky miscues) he made. I've seen the Lara 153 a couple of times now - can't call it anything less than a truly great innings. Was it better than say Tendulkar's Perth hundred, or Botham's 118 at Old Trafford? No. But it definitely was a brilliant, brilliant knock under pressure and against a top attack.

[Mr. Wicket]

That's why I don't believe in numbers and some subjective conditions (eg winning knock) blindly. That was a great knock no doubt' date=' but just because some other knock didn't result in victory doesn't automatically mean is has to be of lower quality than a winning 100.[/quote'] Agreed. The hundred in a winning cause > hundred not in a winning cause is a BS argument. At the end of it the batsman has control over his shots, the runs he scores and his batting approach. He can't control the rest, so if a Lara or Tendulkar play an amazing knock while others around them crumble and fall, it doesn't make the knock lesser than what it may have been rated if the others play brilliantly and score tons.

[Cricketics]

Salil, i am don't literally mean it was a bad knock. offcourse it was a match winning knock so no way it can be a bad knock. I just feel it wasn't great as much as it was hyped. Even though that knock makes me say "WOW.. Brilliant effort by lara" still when i think about it later, i feel it wasn't that great. don't know why.

[Anakin]

Agreed. The hundred in a winning cause > hundred not in a winning cause is a BS argument. At the end of it the batsman has control over his shots, the runs he scores and his batting approach. He can't control the rest, so if a Lara or Tendulkar play an amazing knock while others around them crumble and fall, it doesn't make the knock lesser than what it may have been rated if the others play brilliantly and score tons.

Ditto. Another perfect recent example would be the brilliant 80odd by Veeru against England in that famous run chase. 90% of the times the team would lose in that situation, but it just can not blemish Veeru's knock even slightly, that'd be a superb knock by its own rights.

[Mr. Wicket]

Yup. In the case of Veeru's knock the end result just made it even better in light of the fact that Sehwag scored runs at such a rate that it opened up the possibility for a win, as well as truly frightening England's bowlers and sending them into a panic. [And potentially costing them a later test, too. Would England have waited and waited and waited to declare with 500+ on the board in Antigua, if they hadn't been smacked to bits defending 400+?]

[Shehezaada]

Salil brother, please stop torturing us and upload these DVDs!

[Anakin]

Veeru is just great, period :icflove:

[Mr. Wicket]

Salil brother' date=' please stop torturing us and upload these DVDs![/quote'] Don't have a way to upload em. Even if I did, wouldn't have a hard drive big enough. Anakin; stop being a worshipper. :winky:

[Holysmoke]

Don't have a way to upload em. Even if I did, wouldn't have a hard drive big enough. Anakin; stop being a worshipper. :winky:

Give them to me.

[Don Sharma]

I've seen the Lara 153 a couple of times now - can't call it anything less than a truly great innings. Was it better than say Tendulkar's Perth hundred, or Botham's 118 at Old Trafford? No.

No? I disagree, Lara's effort was as gud as, if not a touch better than Sachin's knock in Perth. On the final day on that Barbados pitch that was no mean effort. I remember WI needed some 200+ runs with 5 wickets in hand, I guess Lara scored some 70% of those runs. Moreover McGrath, Warne and Gillespie were hitting their prime during that series, so it stands out for me. But Lara's 277 at Sydney was his best, just for the kinda shots he played. IMO Lara a better test player, Sachin a better ODI player, T20 ??? PS: It has bcom more of a Lara vs. Sachin debate instead of "reliving Tendulkar vs. Warne", anyway...

[Anakin]

Gotta disagree there, BCL was never a better test player than SRT, I'm not a huge stats guy, but IIRC, BCL averages quite poorly abroad, just above SCG. Again, that's not the only criterion, but an important one.