Lara V Tendulkar

[Dravid_TheWall]

Lara himself acknowledges SRT as the best batsman ever :giggle: Lara was burnt-out at the end of his career...SRT keeps going on and on

Former Australian captain Ian Chappell rates Brian Lara as a superior batsman to the resurgent Ricky Ponting and little master Sachin Tendulkar. Chappell says Lara's ability to amass big scores for the West Indies and his "innate knowledge" on targeting specific bowlers to score quickly makes him a better batsman than Australia's Ponting and India's Tendulkar. "Tendulkar gains a lot of support because he is idolised in a country of more than a billion people, he was compared to Sir Donald Bradman by the man himself and is on the verge of scoring 100 international centuries, a remarkable feat," Chappell wrote in his column for the Daily Telegraph. "Ponting gains votes for his versatility as a batsman and his determination to battle hard in adversity. Ponting may trail Tendulkar in discussions on the aesthetics of batting, but he bows to no one on perseverance. "Meanwhile, in a classic case of out of sight out of mind, the now retired Lara hardly ever enters the conversation these days. To exclude Lara is a mistake; he is the world record-holder with a Test score of 400 and, next to Bradman, he is the scorer of the most "big" centuries in Test cricket. "He has the only score of 400 in Test cricket, a triple century and seven double centuries. That's a remarkable feat, especially when you consider neither Tendulkar nor Ponting has a triple century. "This probably highlights an area where Lara is superior to the other two players under discussion; his knowledge of how to amass big scores," said Chappell. Lara played his last international match in 2007 after making 34 Test and 19 one-day hundreds. Ponting, who has 41 and 30 centuries in the two formats, has regained form at the *** end of his career, silencing his detractors by scoring a double century and a hundred in the recently concluded series against India. Tendulkar, sitting on 99 international hundreds, is far ahead of the two in numbers. "While the world has watched and waited anxiously for Tendulkar's 100th international century, Ponting has quietly beavered away in the background restoring his reputation with persistent practice and hard-earned runs in the middle," said Chappell. "The fact that those runs were increasingly more convincing in Adelaide, and he was able to push on to score a double century, have turned the conversation from 'when will he retire' to 'how long will he play on'." "Ponting will never reach the statistical peak of Tendulkar, but while the "Little Master" continues to stumble with the defining century in sight, often because of a mental aberration, Ponting impresses with the strength of his mind. "Nevertheless, if you told me I could pick just one of that trio, I would take Lara. "I loved the way he played spin bowling and I admired his determination to always do it his way," he added.

[akshayxyz]

mayb the balls dropped too much :--D

And he got confused which ball is for hitting and which one for reproduction. :haha:

[Number]

Good achievement no doubt but likes of Bradman' date=' Gavaskar and Lara could have got that if played same length as Tendu in this era.[/quote'] But Sachin didn't stop them to play. Did he? coulda shoulda don't work here. Who could have believed Sree will never take more than 90 test wickets the way he bowled in first 2 years.

[akshayxyz]

When Tendu is batting it don't matter who his batsmen are' date=' it's the bowlers that matter as they have to take wickets. Sreesanth couldn't even take wkts during Eng tour. He was haunted by flashbacks of his slap. [b']Even Dodda would have got 300 wkts by now if he had palyed as many matches as Sree.

What about Agarkar? I remember someone proving that he had one of the best wicket/match ratio. :dontknow:

[Magneto]

lara had world class bowlers. sachin had the likes of sreesanth.

:hysterical: :hysterical:

[velu]

Now that would be a big if. The only player out of the ones you mentioned who could have done it is Bradman and even he would have had to be in form for quite a while to do so.

Don's career spanned for 21 years

[akshayxyz]

Good achievement no doubt but likes of Bradman' date=' Gavaskar and Lara could have got that if played same length as Tendu in this era.[/quote'] What if your employer tells you, you do not deserve bonus, because he believes some employee in Google would have done much better than you have.

[Ultimate_Game]

Don's career spanned for 21 years

I meant in terms of games played, not just the number of years. I said to get anywhere close to SRT's record Bradman would have had to perform consistently lot longer in terms of matches played. Bradman scored 29 100s and to score 71 more he would have had to be consistent a lot longer. You never know what could have happened :dontknow: Maybe law of averages would have caught up with him at some stage just like it did with Michael Hussey. I don't think Bradman would have continued to plunder runs and 100s with the same frequency over a career spanning say 120 Tests. Somewhere loss of form, fitness, injuries etc. had to have an affect on him. That's why it's tough to go with a woulda shoulda coulda scenario as you never know what could have happened. But at the end of the day SRT did get those intl 100s (all 100 of them) and nobody else did and nobody even came close to doing so :hatsoff:

[Dravid_TheWall]

What if your employer tells you' date=' you do not deserve bonus, because he believes some employee in Google would have done much better than you have.[/quote'] My point is 100th 100 is nothing special overall. Look at both players play, who is more special, who has played better knocks under pressure? Who strives under pressure? Who has deflated attacks more? Lara has done this. Even his 501* for warwickshire, no one else can get near that. People talk about Tendu's childhood partnership with Kambli but this is something else. For me as a kid, Lara was more special. I am glad I enjoyed watching him and didn't want him to fail due to SRT and India fan. But still, I wish I appreciated him a little more.

[Dravid_TheWall]

I meant in terms of games played, not just the number of years. I said to get anywhere close to SRT's record Bradman would have had to perform consistently lot longer in terms of matches played. Bradman scored 29 100s and to score 71 more he would have had to be consistent a lot longer. You never know what could have happened :dontknow: Maybe law of averages would have caught up with him at some stage just like it did with Michael Hussey. I don't think Bradman would have continued to plunder runs and 100s with the same frequency over a career spanning say 120 Tests. Somewhere loss of form, fitness, injuries etc. had to have an affect on him. That's why it's tough to go with a woulda shoulda coulda scenario as you never know what could have happened. But at the end of the day SRT did get those intl 100s (all 100 of them) and nobody else did and nobody even came close to doing so :hatsoff:

That's all true it's a brilliant achievement but doesn't help with who is better.

[deathmonger]

My point is 100th 100 is nothing special overall. Look at both players play' date=' [b']who is more special, who has played better knocks under pressure? Who strives under pressure? Who has deflated attacks more? Lara has done this. Even his 501* for warwickshire, no one else can get near that. People talk about Tendu's childhood partnership with Kambli but this is something else.

Tendulkar

[Deleted_User_1]

My point is 100th 100 is nothing special overall. Look at both players play, who is more special, who has played better knocks under pressure? Who strives under pressure? Who has deflated attacks more? Lara has done this. Even his 501* for warwickshire, no one else can get near that. People talk about Tendu's childhood partnership with Kambli but this is something else.

OK 100th 100 may not have been that special, but to score 100 100s over a span of 22 years at pretty much the same level of consistency is astounding. Maybe not for Sachin haters. :finger: I have seen a lot of batsman in my lifetime on TV and in the stadium. To me he is the most elegant and compact batsman I have seen. Yes there are ATGS with more matchwinning performances, or more bite, but in terms of classical cricket balance, technque and grace and completeness (he has every shot in the book) you cannot beat Tendu.

[saneindian]

To put down Sachin, now some hypothetical scenarios are being discussed! What next, had Lara batted right handed, he would have scored 150 100s in his career? Way to go.

[akshayxyz]

My point is 100th 100 is nothing special overall. Look at both players play, who is more special, who has played better knocks under pressure? Who strives under pressure? Who has deflated attacks more? Lara has done this. Even his 501* for warwickshire, no one else can get near that. People talk about Tendu's childhood partnership with Kambli but this is something else. For me as a kid, Lara was more special. I am glad I enjoyed watching him and didn't want him to fail due to SRT and India fan. But still, I wish I appreciated him a little more.

Lol. I thought we are talking about - Lara/Bradman/... would have easily achieved everything Sachin has, by merely turning up in the field for as long.

[akshayxyz]

To put down Sachin, now some hypothetical scenarios are being discussed! What next, had Lara batted right handed, he would have scored 150 100s in his career? Way to go.

why not..:dontknow: But would he have scored 400*, or 501*

[Ultimate_Game]

That's all true it's a brilliant achievement but doesn't help with who is better.

It all depends on who's making the call. For West Indians it would be Lara, for Indians it would be Tendulkar. But I can safely say majority of neutrals will pick Sachin over Lara. SRT was much more consistent than Lara and other than the 400* SRT did everything Lara did and then some more.

[Ponka]

OK 100th 100 may not have been that special, but to score 100 100s over a span of 22 years at pretty much the same level of consistency is astounding. Maybe not for Sachin haters. :finger: I have seen a lot of batsman in my lifetime on TV and in the stadium. To me he is the most elegant and compact batsman I have seen. Yes there are ATGS with more matchwinning performances, or more bite, but in terms of classical cricket balance, technque and grace and completeness (he has every shot in the book) you cannot beat Tendu.

Name sachin's 10 best knocks out of 22 years of career where he saved India from defeat under pressure then we're talking? It will be an achievement if you can think of 10 to start with.

[Crookbond]

Saying that a hundred 100s isn't special is quite some disregard to one of the best batsmen of all time. :headshake:

[akshayxyz]

Name sachin's 10 best knocks out of 22 years of career where he saved India from defeat under pressure then we're talking? It will be an achievement if you can think of 10 to start with.

Define pressure, as objectively as possible.

[Ponka]

Define pressure' date=' as objectively as possible.[/quote'] Set target (optional), team in problem, you play the knock that takes your team out of it. This is pressure in cricket cuz you've men around the bat and bowlers can bowl countless over on you.