Was this the best ever ODI ?

[Donny]

Yesterday's drama laden 5th. ODI between arch rivals, Australia and India, will long be remembered by those who witnessed it - even by those (me included) who see this series as just another, fairly meaningless, $$$$$ exercise. 99 overs and 4 balls were bowled. 697 runs were scored. The little master, Sachin Tendulkar hit a majestic 173 from just 141 balls - in the process, bringing up his 45th. century and 9th. against Australia and passing 17,000 ODI runs. It earned him a rare (for a losing team) Man of the Match award even though Shane Watson scored 93 and took 3 vital wickets for the victors. Each of the 5 Aussie batsmen batted at run-a-ball or better (strike rates of 100 for Ricky Ponting to 172.72 by Cam White). Three excellent bowling spells. Bhajji's 1/44 (10 overs), Watson's 3/47 (8.4) and McKay's 3/59 (10). With (arguably) Australia's best 4 ODI quicks - Lee, Bracken, Johnson and Siddle - all not playing, debutant Clint McKay claimed Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir and MS Dhoni in his 3/59. India fell agonisingly short of its best ever chase against the Aussies. Australia hit a record 13 sixes (against India) in the innings. Most runs in a match on the losing side: CK Coventry 194* 1 Zimbabwe v Bangladesh Bulawayo 16 Aug 2009 ODI # 2873 ML Hayden 181* 1 Australia v New Zealand Hamilton 20 Feb 2007 ODI # 2527 SR Tendulkar 175 2 India v Australia Hyderabad (Decc) 5 Nov 2009 ODI # 2923 RA Smith 167* 1 England v Australia Birmingham 21 May 1993 ODI # 831 RT Ponting 164 1 Australia v South Africa Johannesburg 12 Mar 2006 ODI # 2349 Some comments: Cricinfo - Sixty one years ago, at the end of a tour of England by Don Bradman's famous pack, John Arlott put it thus: "Australianism," wrote Arlott, "means single-minded determination to win - to win within the laws but, if necessary, to the last limit within them. It means where the 'impossible' is within the realm of what the human body can do, there are Australians who believe that they can do it - and who have succeeded often enough to make us wonder if anything is impossible to them. It means they have never lost a match - particularly a Test match - until the last run is scored or their last wicket down." AC & ICF stalwart, cricketics - "Only Tendulkar can play such knock without playing some rash shots or slog shots to counter attack. This has been a treat to watch. Tendulkar is a Legend. What a knock it has been. Well PLAYED Tendulkar. Great to see a great in Ponting talking sense there by saying that this was one of the best knocks he ever saw. What a game of Cricket there Donny. Brilliant 50 over cricket." DT (Victor Trumper Cricket Board) - "Amazing match. It must frustrate the hell out of opposition teams when Australia lose so many cricketers and still find ways to win. Couldn't care less about 17,000 or the cult of Tendulkar, but you can't call yourself a true cricket fan if you don't enjoy watching him bat. Even when he's destroying your guys, it's pretty." Raja (AC) - "What a fantastic game this was. Excellent batting from the Aussies first. Every single batsman had a strike rate of 100 or more. Watto was brutal, Marsh flowered later on after being a little watchful early on, Cam White's cameo was vital in pushing Australia to 350. The Indian innings was all about one man. Tendulkar. Sure, Raina played a good supporting role and gave Tendulkar as much strike as he could but the chase revolved around Tendulkar. As long as he was there India felt they were in the game. In fact the way Raina and Tendulkar were cruising - they had even brought the required run-rate to under 7 - it looked like India would pull it off. But, to the credit of the Aussies, they never wilted and slackened their efforts. Looking at the way they kept at their task, you would not think this attack of Bollinger, McKay and Watson was a second-string attack. Full marks to them." Birbal2 (VTCB) - "I'm sorry but this is the reason why none of Sachin Tendulkar's knocks feature among Wisden's list. He can never finish the job. I know it is facile to attack him after his massive knock, but hey... it's a pattern for him. He takes India to the brink and then falls. (Mostly I am mad because I flipped it on, I saw Aus 350, India 332 for six and then watched in disbelief as they ****** it up. Maybe "I" am unlucky for India!!!) It is just that nobody seems to stand up and continue the good work...it is not Sachin's failing...it is a team failing...how the heck do you go from 332 for 6 to then LOSE the game...? If there is ONE person to blame, it has got to be Yuvraj..." Stoliboy (Nick's Bulletin Board) - you look at Ponting and although India should have won it we never gives in. Absolutely fanastic effort. One of the best finishes to a cricket game I've seen." Add your comments.

[davidcooper]

yea one of the best

[vvvslaxman]

Atmosphere was terrific.

[Params7]

Most runs in a match on the losing side: CK Coventry 194* 1 Zimbabwe v Bangladesh Bulawayo 16 Aug 2009 ODI # 2873 ML Hayden 181* 1 Australia v New Zealand Hamilton 20 Feb 2007 ODI # 2527 SR Tendulkar 175 2 India v Australia Hyderabad (Decc) 5 Nov 2009 ODI # 2923 RA Smith 167* 1 England v Australia Birmingham 21 May 1993 ODI # 831 RT Ponting 164 1 Australia v South Africa Johannesburg 12 Mar 2006 ODI # 2349

Out of all those, only Tendulkar is chasing. This was one of the greatest knocks we have ever seen from him..its truly unfortunate the team couldn't win.

[graphic23]

Welcome back Donny. Its been a while since you've posted here. It was one of those awesome innings. As for the game itself, there was plenty of mediocrity going around, at least from ourside of things. Credit to Sachin that with the Australian electric fielding + such a high score, he managed to take the team within 3 runs of the total.

[Mr. Wicket]

"Three excellent bowling spells. Bhajji's 1/44 (10 overs), Watson's 3/47 (8.4) and McKay's 3/59 (10)." I would hardly call McKay or Bhajji's spells excellent. Either that, or bowling standards have slipped so much in the past decade that the benchmark has declined a significant amount as well. That said, I would hardly call this the best ever ODI. For me that Semi final in 1999 still holds that mark; an amazing display of superb batsmanship in periods, phenomenal bowling throughout and one of the most nerve-destroying finishes I have ever seen in sport. One of the greatest innings I have seen from Tendulkar, for sure. But the greatness certainly did not spread to other parts of the ODI (certainly not his teammates). BTW, welcome back Donny. Hope you're well and still enjoying the game.

[Donny]

Thanks, Salil. :) The bowling spells I mentioned were excellent - within the context of the match. McKay on debut and the overall match run rate of 7. I didn't say it was the 'best ever'. I posed the question. By the way, I wasn't able to see a single ball bowled as a storm knocked out my satelite dish. Thankfully, my 'net dish was ok.

[vvvslaxman]

Pitch had nothing. Most of the wickets fell due to rash shots. No turn, swing, lateral movement. nada zilch. India's best chance was to put up a big score and tie them with spinners.

[Donny]

BTW' date=' welcome back Donny. Hope you're well and still enjoying the game.[/quote'] Very much still enjoying the glorious game. :two_thumbs_up: My team, The Vic Bushrangers, have recovered reasonably well from the T20 Champs defeat by ... who was it ? can't remember now. Brad ***** scored 195 in the first Sheffield Match and Chris Rogers and Andy Mac also scored centuries. ***** backed up with a MoM 114 not out in the Ranger Cup win against The Redbacks. Oh, and NSW is struggling to chase WA's 8/499 (Luke Ronchi 148 from 154 balls) at the SCG, so, overall, yes ... enjoying the game. :winky: I must say, though, I'm happy for Champagne Bollinger. He deserves his recent success. On a wellness level, I had a recent 2 metre fall onto broken concrete and rusty metal. 1. I lived (sorry about that, Deesy) and 2. a possible left arm amputation was avoided so I can still play guitar in my :band:

[Mr. Wicket]

Cripes! Sorry to hear about that. Take care, recover well and keep playing.

[Don Sharma]

It was a nail bitter, alright but I will remember the match for Sachin's batsmanship rather than the quality of the match itself which wasn't great btw with a lot of runouts missed, catches dropped, poor bowling, etc Following are some of the matches that will be etched in my memory for a long time. '99 WC SF - SA v. Aus '98 Tri series in Dhaka, third final - Ind v. Pak '02 Natwest series final '93 Hero cup SF - Ind v. SA

[suraj]

I am still crying for Sachin

[Chalks]

I think you mean 99 WC SF - SA v Aus. In the 96 SF @ Mohali WI lost their last 8 wickets for 37 to lose to Aus. That was also a great game. Ambrose and Bishop reduced Aus to 4/15 before Michael Bevan and Stuart Law rescued them. Eventually they made 8/207. Then WI were cruising to victory at 2/165 when McGrath, Warne and Fleming triggered a collapse similar to India's against SL in Calcutta the previous night. http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/65191.html The 99 Aus-RSA Super Six game which preceded the tied semi was also a classic - who can forget Steve Waugh's epic, with Gibbs dropping the World Cup? For all the ill-informed criticism of him by some on here, SRT's knock made last night's match, and saved it from being remembered as just another meaningless ODI.

[DomainK]

Very much still enjoying the glorious game. :two_thumbs_up: My team, The Vic Bushrangers, have recovered reasonably well from the T20 Champs defeat by ... who was it ? can't remember now. Brad ***** scored 195 in the first Sheffield Match and Chris Rogers and Andy Mac also scored centuries. ***** backed up with a MoM 114 not out in the Ranger Cup win against The Redbacks. Oh, and NSW is struggling to chase WA's 8/499 (Luke Ronchi 148 from 154 balls) at the SCG, so, overall, yes ... enjoying the game. :winky: I must say, though, I'm happy for Champagne Bollinger. He deserves his recent success. On a wellness level, I had a recent 2 metre fall onto broken concrete and rusty metal. 1. I lived (sorry about that, Deesy) and 2. a possible left arm amputation was avoided so I can still play guitar in my :band:

That sounds serious. Good to see you here again.

[Don Sharma]

I think you mean 99 WC SF - SA v Aus. In the 96 SF @ Mohali WI lost their last 8 wickets for 37 to lose to Aus. That was also a great game. Ambrose and Bishop reduced Aus to 4/15 before Michael Bevan and Stuart Law rescued them. Eventually they made 8/207. Then WI were cruising to victory at 2/165 when McGrath, Warne and Fleming triggered a collapse similar to India's against SL in Calcutta the previous night. http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/65191.html The 99 Aus-RSA Super Six game which preceded the tied semi was also a classic - who can forget Steve Waugh's epic, with Gibbs dropping the World Cup? For all the ill-informed criticism of him by some on here, SRT's knock made last night's match, and saved it from being remembered as just another meaningless ODI.

Got the year wrong...thanks for correcting. Yep, the WI-Aus game was also a great one but I don't want to remember that.:(( I used to be a big fan of the Windies back then and I almost wept after that match. BC Coorey:whack: But then they had nine ****ing wickets in hand with 70+ runs to get and still managed to lose:mad:.

[Gambit]

Good to have you back Donny. Congratulations on the speedy recovery.

[Fontaine]

I think it was a pretty worthless match actually. If people genuinely want to watch 700 runs being scored, batsmen thrashing and slogging away without fear, and bowlers relegated to nothing by a flat, useless pitch then why not just spend the whole day watching batting practice in the nets? The best cricket matches I've seen are a genuine contest between bat and ball, skill vs skill and may the best team win. When you throw out almost half the team from each side (the bowlers) before the match even starts then it's not really cricket, just a mockery of it. Would anyone be calling it a geat ODI match if the pitch was a minefield, cracked and uneven where every ball would turn a mile and fast bowlers would get the ball to keep low or high with unpredictable bounce because the wicket wasn't rolled properly? Why the double standard?

[champ]

I think it was a pretty worthless match actually. If people genuinely want to watch 700 runs being scored, batsmen thrashing and slogging away without fear, and bowlers relegated to nothing by a flat, useless pitch then why not just spend the whole day watching batting practice in the nets? The best cricket matches I've seen are a genuine contest between bat and ball, skill vs skill and may the best team win. When you throw out almost half the team from each side (the bowlers) before the match even starts then it's not really cricket, just a mockery of it. Would anyone be calling it a geat ODI match if the pitch was a minefield, cracked and uneven where every ball would turn a mile and fast bowlers would get the ball to keep low or high with unpredictable bounce because the wicket wasn't rolled properly? Why the double standard?

if people play on the sort of wicket you are described there .. they have to just survive and have a lot of luck and u need that ? but yes we can do with belters .. .since there was a pressure of chase of big target and wickets were few . .this has to be one of the great innings capable of only geniuses ..

[okko321]

well for me the best odi was between aussy and south africa wen they both scored 400 plus run dam man dat was 1 killer match and scoring 400 runs is ALOT

[Fontaine]

if people play on the sort of wicket you are described there .. they have to just survive and have a lot of luck and u need that ? but yes we can do with belters .. .since there was a pressure of chase of big target and wickets were few . .this has to be one of the great innings capable of only geniuses ..

Well, I'm not disagreeing that it was a great innings by Tendulkar. That goes without saying. But whether this was the best ever ODI? Not at all in my opinion for the reasons I've already mentioned.