What Sachin was to Indian team in 90's.!!

[GoldenSun]

Most players on the team were sick. In the final (India were bowled out for 125 - I remember Akram taking 2 wickets in the 1st over)' date=' Akram was suffering with fever as well.[/quote'] I think from 1997/98 ish India developed a reputation for being chokers in Triangular series finals. The worst one was that Tri series in 2001 against West Indies and Zimbabwe. We looked utterly dominant throughout that series and we ended up and we losing to an average West Indies in the finals. We should be thrilled to be a world away from those days..

[sekhar]

Against top bowling sides we always needed Sachin for the good start even when Ganguly and Dravid were there. Remember just before world cup in 1999 we played against Pakistan in Sharjah and in India when Sachin was injured. http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/series/61044.html http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/series/61042.html They thrashed us left, right and center, almost as if they were playing some minnow team. Ganguly just couldn't play Akhtar at his peak at all and RD couldn't score anything off it. Then in world cup Sachin came and gave us a good start against Akhtar and Akram on which our middle order could build and we won the game.

I remember those matches and in those days dravid was hugely criticized (in odis) for slow strike rate.Especially against saqlain mustaq our middle order always looked clueless..Even scoring 3 runs per over against saqlain was considered as good...he would bowl dot balls after dot balls, and force you to play a false shot ....dravid always had great technique and mountain of patience but was poor in rotating strike which improved post 2000 era

[goose]

Since early ninties' date=' The first exception to the rule happened in 2002 Natwest final We won without Tendulkar.[/quote'] Agreed - that match marked a bit of a shift.

[Crookbond]

IIRC' date='Dravid was unlucky.[/quote'] Inside edge gUr3FS5eloQ Very much. The calm that Yuvraj and Dhoni (in particular) have brought us in ODI chases is just unbelievable. Kohli has caught on it as well.