How Sachin outscored Bradman – Sachin vs Sir Don

[b555]

In the year 1932 English captain Douglas Jardine, invented a method to stop the greatest batsman of all time, Sir Donald Bradman by a bowling method called Bodyline. Something that really worked for Jardine and his boys and England managed to win the Ashes and Sir Don failed (as per his standard). Exactly after 60 years in 2002, another English captain Nasser Hussain, tried his own formula to stop Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, by bowling outside the leg stump ( a negative theory). Interestingly both the Captains were born in India, Jardine in Mumbai and Hussain in Chennai. Both of them were successful in their mission as Bradman couldn’t score even 400 runs (strike rate of 75) in the series (974 runs in previous Ashes) and England regained the Ashes whereas Hussain too was partially successful by not letting Tendulkar to score with his regular strike rate but he still managed to score 307 runs with an average of 76+ however Hussain’s tactics did frustrate Sachin and 1st time in his career he got stumped in Test Cricket. All these years no other captain had aimed one single batsman to stop from scoring runs, except Hussain and Jardine. In 1996 when Bradman told a Sports channel “I saw him playing on television and was struck by his technique, so I asked my wife to come look at him. Now I never saw myself play, but I feel that this bloke is playing much the same as I used to play, and she looked at him on Television and said yes, there is a similarity between the two… his compactness, technique, stroke production… it all seemed to gel†(it was still an early phase of Sachin’s career), many didn’t agree with it and former Australian Captain and legendary commentator, Richie Benaud said in one of the interview in 1998 that he was not convinced with Sir Don’s statement but when he saw Sachin played like that in Sharjah, he too started believing in it. The statement came when Sachin was touring England with Indian team and almost everyone around the world predicted that Sachin will be the 1st man in test cricket to score 50 centuries and 15000 runs (he’s just 1500 runs and 3 centuries behind those predictions). Apart from playing in similar fashion, both Sachin and Sir Don batted at lower down in their 1st test match (Sachin at 6 and Bradman at 7), both couldn’t score above 20 runs in their 1st test match innings. In the year 1998 he was judged second none to other than Sir Don Bradman by every Australian after those 2 back to back hundreds at Sharjah. In next few years almost every Cricket expert believed that Sachin is next to Sir Don, but in last 1 and half year, former cricketers started saying that he has passed Sir Don and he is above Sir Don. Sir Richard Hadlee rated Tendulkar even higher than Don Bradman, considering Indian batsman’s staggering success in both the long and short formats of the game. And when Sachin became the 1st man on earth to score double hundred against South Africa early this year, the same captain who asked his bowler to bowl negative line to frustrate Sachin Tendulkar, rated Sachin above Bradman. Unarguably the most worshiped cricketer, Sachin Tendulkar has been rated above every other batsmen/cricketer. Though that doesn’t mean Sir Don was less great but what Sachin had been doing since 1989, no one else has been able to do in their short/long career. This is something Indian fans had felt quite a long time back.

So how does Sachin Tendulkar outscores Sir Don? 1.Pressure

Tendulkar plays under huge pressure. 1 billion+ people expecting you to perform in each and every match. To perform consistently well for 20 years as per expectations is just Brilliant! Bradman never had such pressure in his whole career apart from bodyline series and in his last innings against England. And just look what pressure can do. His average which was usually over 100 in maximum series came down to just 52 in bodyline series. When the whole world was watching him to score just 4 runs in his last innings he couldn’t even score those runs. This is what pressure is all about. And Tendulkar goes through such pressure in each every match. Even the matches against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. With one failure public, media, everyone in India starts criticizing the Great of Indian cricket. Still he is performing consistently. Isn’t this amazing?

2.Fitness

Bradman played 52 tests in 20 years whereas Sachin played 162 tests in 20 years. In Bradman’s time not many matches played. Players easily got 7-8 days of gap in between 2 tests of a series. In one year only 4-5 tests played. There were no onedayers. Nowadays there are too much of ODI’s. Once a series starts, you don’t get any chance to take rest. 5 ODI completes in 12-13days and as soon as ODI series is over, the Test series starts and between tests only 3 days of gap. No rest for players & they have to play each test and ODI. In Bradman’s times you could get 7-8 days for rest & not only that, Bradman played some tests which were of just 3 days, and in almost every test he played, there was a rest day in between, so fitness level and total numbers of matches 4-5 and look at today’s cricket, atleast 10 Tests and 30 ODIs each year and in ODI’s you just can’t play cricket with peace at all. After every ball u have to look at the score board, have to accelerate anytime in the innings many times from the beginning, pressure with no rest virtually ! Though he’s is playing T-20 also at domestic level, but T-20 is just not the cricket. (You don’t have plan when you go out to bat, just go and hit)

3. Position of Batting

Bradman usually came at no.3 or no.4 and mostly when the score were 176 for 1 or 217 for 2. No pressure!! Just play the natural game and dominated the bowling. Unlike Sachin, Bradman had some really good openers from the start of his career. Woodfull & Ponsford had career average of 45+, Sachin usually came at no.4 & mostly when India lost both the openers with the scoreboard reading something 20-2!!! And then this best batsman of all time rescues the team. In Onedayers Sachin opens and starts blazing guns from the beginning and then steady in middle overs and again all guns blazing in last 10 overs. And at 37, if you are still able to do after playing 20 years, then it’s surely a remarkable thing !

4. Opposition

Bradman played mostly against England and he got used to that bowling thats why scored over 5000 runs with an average of around 92. One series against each minnows [india, SouthAfrica and WestIndies were new in cricket that time] and scored heavily against them. Never played in Indian Sub-Continent against Indian spinners. Playing at Indian pitches is never been easy for any batsman.Nowdays Australian thinks Ricky Ponting is the best batsman after Bradman from Australia. Look his record in India! Sachin’s average in Australia is above 54. A batsman is perfect when he scores against really class bowlings. Excluding Larwood Bradman never played any quality bowlers. (and the other 2 were CV Grimmett & RR Lindwall, who belong to his own country) He never played against a bowler who bowls something like 160kmph+ on hard fast pitch where batsman hardly gets a chance to think of what should be played, whereas Sachin played against Ambrose-Walsh-Bishop, Wasim-Waqar-Akhtar, McGrath-Lee-Gilespie, Donald-Pollock, Warne-Murli and many more. The swing was unknown during that time, Sachin has to play reverse swing, which was no one could even imagined. The fielder shattering stumps from the boundary was unheard in Bradman’s time. Just see the class of fielding nowadays, Rhodes, Ponting, Gibbs. The standard of fielding is far much better than it was in that time!

5. Technology

In Bradman’s time it was not easy to pick one’s weakness just standing at slips or point. That’s why Jardine had to use the theory of bowling on chest height to stop Bradman from scoring runs. Its true that then there was no such equipment like helmet, arm-guards to save you but then apart from Bodyline series there were no such instance where batsmen had to really save themselves from truly fast bowling. Interestingly, though Sachin plays few shots in the air when he tries to play drives on rising delivery (thanks to Today’s technology) and many captain tried to get his wicket at the early part of his innings, Nasser Hussain tried something different to get his wicket, by not letting him to score freely against his bowlers (though Sachin still had the second best strike rate after Sehwag in that series for India). Cricket is not game of only averages..There are many other things which should be consider like the standard of playing cricket. Nowadays so much of technology is used so that you can take out weak areas of a particular player. The standard of fielding is just too good. The Media hype and pressure is so much. Lots of cricket played, scoring in every part of the world. Sachin not only plays role in batting but also in many other areas like Sachin can spin the bowl like Shane Warne, Sachin is never afraid of taking responsibilities. Tendulkar took the ball from Azhar and Kapil in Hero Cup Semifinal and bowled the last over and did not let South Africa to score 6 runs to win the match. Just imagine if those runs were scored. Public and Media of India would have definitely gone after the little master. And if that’s not enough he is partially playing a role of mentor/coach of Indian Cricket Team. Though its unfair to compare the two batsmen of different era but then it would be unfair to call Sir Don as the greatest batsmen of “all timeâ€.

[b555]

source: link P.S: mods please move it to the articles section

[b555]

awesome article

[Andy]

:adore:

[Sachinism]

*facepalm*

[Mr. Wicket]

P.S: mods please move it to the articles section

No, that's only for original articles written here.

[Guest BossBhai]

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[Mr. Wicket]

baasu

[Sachin200*]

who the hell is bradman Bradman Lara Ponting all these cricketers are nothing before sachin is there any player who scored consistently as sachin sachin was a lone soldier during 1990,s sachin is the greatest cricketer always will be.

[Gunner_Mania]

Here comes yet another one..with his first post :wall:

[b555]

Here comes yet another one..with his first post :wall:

:cantstop:

[Sachin200*]

Here comes yet another one..with his first post :wall:

Dont worry there are no pakistani batsmen who have class of sachin in cricket

[THX_1138]

must we really do another one of these bradman vs tendulkar threads? every objective commentator and observer of the game will vote bradman as an unimaginably great test batsman and there just does not exist an appropriate criterion for him to be compared to tendulkar. must we thus soil the legacy of both these gentlemen by indulging in such partisan hack threads where our decision runs parallel to our nationality? if you must really compare someone, try this: afridi vs vettori. go play.

[Malcolm Merlyn]

All these (and lots more ) have been dissected in great detail in this thread : http://indiancricketfans.com/showthread.php?t=212051 ... were all the bradman bhakts got pwned . But item no.3 is incorrect .... the Avg score at which DGB walks in at No.3 is 42 . For SRT its 92 ( batting at No.4)

boss bhai cni have a link for the secod stat u gave.

[Guest BossBhai]

-- Removed on request of the user --

[Malcolm Merlyn]

You wont get that stat on Cricinfo's statsguru (or any other cricket stats website).

then where to find it???:nervous:

[Guest BossBhai]

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[Desi Cartman]

After reading so many articles and posts regarding Bradman Vs SRT , Im still not convinced that its even wise to compare the 2. Its like comparing pele and Maradona .. they were both greats and they played in different times, you cant compare them.

[TheWall]

Both Bradman and Sachin are great in their era. No comparison.

[Guest BossBhai]

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