England Tour a personal success for Sachin

[Don]

We all agreed after the personal debacles of Tendulkar in South Africa and World Cup that the England tour should be held as a litmus test to see if Tendulkar was still up for it at this leval. As the tour is now over we need to look at the England tour statistically and aesthetically to decide if Tendulkar did indeed pass that litmus test. Against South Africa - a 99, 93 and 14. Man of the series and rightly so, along with Yuvraj our main architect of the first ever series win against Saffies. His 99 was a masterpiece in negotiating high quality swing bowling as was his 93 in the 2nd match where he took on the short ball and showed Ntini and Co. when he is in the mood no plans work against him. Agaisnt England A – 177 Another gem of an innings to set the tone and announce his arrival in England. Took India out of the middle order wobble and unfurled some of his most sumptuous shots. Particular mention must go to his barracking of the young Yorkshire leggie Adil Rashid, another proof that no one plays legspin better then him. Agaisnt England in Tests – 35, 18, 91, 1, 82, 1. Failed to get going in Lords with 53 runs from the test, But Dhoni saved the day and India lived to fight another day. Now his 92 was pivotal in setting up the Trent Bridge victory, England had been shot down for a small total, openers had done a great job in huge opening partnership and all that remained to do was stretch the lead so high that England caved in. And how well, he fought and fought against Sidebottom and eked out vital runs with Ganguly to setup the Victory. Umpire gave him a shocker and denied the century. Failed in 2nd Innings but only 20 runs were required for victory so was not really a failure. His 82 at the oval was once again a crucial innings in taking the test away from England and indeed the series. Failed in 2nd innings but didn’t really hurt India since they were already 350 runs up. So all in all in 4 innings that counted he produced 215 runs at 56.5. (given out wrongly once) Against England in ODI’s – 14, 99, 8, 55, 71, 94, 30 In the ODI’s plundered runs as only he can and blasted England to all parts of the grounds. Was instrumental in India clawing back from a 3-1 deficit, only if bowlers could have closed down Bopara-Broad partnership we could have won the series. Was given out wrongly twice, once denying him his century. All in all the tour is without a doubt a resounding success for Tendulkar. The little doubts that do remain of his Test form will be again tested against Pakistan and Australia tour, but going by the ODI series beware the lil’Master is back and hungrier then ever before.

[Guest BossBhai]

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[yoda]

great ODI series, decent test series.

[Chandan]

great ODI series' date=' decent test series.[/quote'] And hence a more than decent series for him.

[Holysmoke]

I can still bet my bottom dollar that some guys out here want to drop him from the team.

[Guest Hiten.]

he proved everyone wrong and showed that he is not a liability on the indian team :two_thumbs_up:

[Ram]

Without doubt, the best batsman on tour for India. Kudos to the master !

[gs]

Hope he can continue in the same vein against Pak and Aus.