Sachin vs Ponting
Amit recently pointed out to me that Sachin and Ponting ODI average almost the same during the last 4 years after the 2003 world cup. Check out http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/columns/content/story/316065.html
However the difference between what Ponting’s team has achieved versus what the Indian team has achieved is night and day. I remember in the 80s watching a Wimbledon final between Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg. And the score was very lob-sided in favor of Edberg, but when you looked at points won Boris had won more if not equal number of points. I sat up when I saw that analysis, it made no sense to me.
Sachin vs Ponting is the samething in my head. Sachin is a good player, he has helped cricket’s cause a lot in India and abroad, but he is not a great player in my book. He never won the important points or the critical matches, where we needed him to win the games. India never won the world cup under him. Maybe he will play in the next one and achieve greatness.
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Speaking of “effective” players and match winning performances, it is interesting to note that Sachin has won 55 man of the match awards in 402 matches while Ponting has won 25 from 285 games. In short, he has played 30% less matches and has been most effective in 55% lesser matches compared to Sachin.
http://stats.cricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283705.html
If we compare who has dominated a series more often, Ponting’s 4 man of the series awards fades in comparison with Sachin’s 13 (including a World Cup player of the series). No prizes for guessing who has won these awards the most number of times in history.
http://stats.cricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283468.html
Most runs in World Cup history? Sachin again – 1796 runs at an average of 57.97 at a strike rate of 88.21. Ponting is second at 1537 at an average of 48.03 and strike rate of 81.06!
http://stats.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/records/batting/most_runs_career.html?id=12;type=trophy
Moreover, Ponting’s numbers would look a lot worse if he had to deal with his own team’s bowling!
Cricket is a team sport. Unlike tennis, if one is trying hard to go up, there could be at least 10 trying to pull you down (discounting the coach). So winning games in not always in the hands of one or two individuals.
Sachin is a greater player compared to Ponting. If the question is about leadership and man management, the answer is different.
Cricket’s Good. An all rounder like Kapil is yet to arrive
When it comes to Watching, A Sport where All the players are sweating and thinking on the field, all at the same time until it ends – is better. The sense of Sportsmanship is far more realtime and somehow it rouses a more complex string of emotions in the watcher. Something like, http://rchou.blogspot.com/2006/07/day23-1248am-portu-cheers-world-cup.html
Like, if Sreesanth – for all his antics and aggressiveness- if he did that on a football field .. he could easily get a few headbutts to rethink his strategy
hmm
cricket is unpredictable game, you never know, well, not only Sachin, most of the Indian Team is most of the time not able to perform well under pressure.
compare to ponting ,sachin is a good player
its unfair though i dislike both of them i wish 2 tell dis…SACHIN can never play well,sry…even in an average manner…he will not only exploit himself…but d team also…compared 2 dis,i say ponting s far better dan sachin…n very well sachin’s ambitious past stories(when i liked him a lot…) hav now recently turned as bed time stories…it s now a high time 4 him pave way 4 young n talented players…
Undoubtedly, Sachin is the greatest ODI batsman Cricket has ever seen. But, Ponting has a slight edge over Sachin in Test Cricket. Being Indians, we don’t accept this. Indeed, it is true. When you compare Ponting with Sachin in ODI cricket, he is nowhere in the scene. Ponting is going to break Sachin’s records in Test Cricket soon. Ponting truly deserves this !
no matter……., sachin will be de unbeaten hero in both forms of cricket TEST as well as ODI., i wish dat sachin shld play till ponting’s retirement,,,,,,,, gud luck sachin
Dude, cricket is purely team game, its not like tennis…. sachin is not the only player who can win the world cup, even team should contribute. If poining was in Indian team in place of sachin, he would not have scored even 7k runs. He has no pressure as his team is good and have good players to carry on the match even if he dont play.
sachin is the best forever.
We Indians (cricket fans) seem to be so obsessed with Tendulkar that we sometimes put his personal achievements above the team. It may seem ridiculous but sometimes even if the team isn’t winning, we want Sachin to do well personally with the bat. Well, cricket is a team sport and the joy of seeing our team win is greater than seeing Sachin perform well with the bat and people shouldn’t forget that. The argument that Ponting playing in the Indian team would have scored fewer runs is unfair to the rest of the Indian team as the Sehwags and the Yuvrajs are as good as the Husseys and the Simons. It’s just that Ponting performs when it matters on most occasions and that is the hallmark of a truly great cricketer and not just a batting genius. We must be ready to accept this fact and move on. We seriously don’t have to practise idol-worship in cricket too.
Ricky is great but Sachin is always the greatest….read on Why……unbiased analysis….
It’s ridiculous and insulting if Sachin’s contribution to the sport is just being viewed as his personal achievement.Sachin’s played most of his cricket in such a defensive Indian team in which most of the times they depended on Sachin’s performance and we have lived thro’ the years when Sachin’s failure in an innings would mean India’s loss,if Sachin use to give a solid platform then only the rest of the team could perform,and believe me Ricky has never been under such a huge expectation in his entire career as he was supported right thro his career by lot of match winners like Waugh brothers,Bevan,McGrath,Lee,Shane Warne,Hayden,Healy,Hussey,Clarke,Symonds,Martin,Gilchrist……all of them are key match winners in their own right.
By match winner doesn’t mean that one player can win the match for a team but the outstanding performance from one player can help in two ways: first,it uplifts the morale of the entire team to perform well in all departments and second it shatters the confidence of the opponents.For example,if Gilchrist,Haydon or Symonds are in their aggressive best on their day,they can apprehend the best of the bowlers let alone the part timers, which leaves little or no option for the opposing captain than to make more mistakes or wait for the onslaught to get over by itself.
The transformation of Indian team started quite late in Sachin’s career when Ganguly took over the captaincy and we experienced the influx of much needed aggression from more players than just Sachin.Now our team also has the key match winners like Sehwag,Yuvraj,Dhoni,Zaheer and even new comers are being conditioned in to the new environment.
The era of Prabhakar,Manjrekar,Amre,Kambli,overdefensive Rahul in onedayers,Raju,Hirwani,Maninder,Prasad,Azhar has been the time when Sachin was so young(less than 25) and the entire country wanted him to deliver all the time which is the kind of expectation which no batsman in the world has ever shouldered whereas Sachin has consistently been able to perform and win matches for India on numerous occasions.
We say Sachin has not played well under pressure,but why do we just point our fingers on him we have lost consecutively in 14 finals and how could the other ten players of the team not perform under pressure and win match for India.There are numerous occasions when Sachin has played a match winning knock.
We are sometimes biased in understanding the match winning knocks,where we just see if a number 4 or 5 player makes 50 runs in 35 balls and wins the match in the end.That’s the job at that batting position and he has to perform that way but we forget the 60 ball 50 of the opener who faced the best fresh bowlers with the new ball under the uncertain ground conditions.To me the openers 50 actually created the platform for the number 5 player to win the match.
It’s like the goal scorer in the hockey or soccer matches is not always the one who’s done the best job but the one who dribbled past various opponents to create an opportunity for the goal scorer to score.
Ponting throughout in his career been surrounded by so many people who can make him feel better/comfortable when he comes in to bat but Sachin has experienced this in the recent past.
Sachin is always the greatest.
“There is no moral victory”
http://rosensharma.wordpress.com/2009/11/02/sachin-versus-ponting-take-2/
Perhaps you’ve forgotten,he’s the only person who’s made the most number of runs in world cup so the foolish interpretation is “this is his personal landmark” but the prudent will ask “Why couldn’t others do their bit to make India win the world cup as a team rather than only expecting from Sachin to win it for them”.
No world cup has ever been won by a single player.
So today Sachin made 175 against Australia. A sublime effort. But we lost the match by 3 runs. With 18 runs needed in 18 balls, how could we have lost with Sachin at the crease?
well well well…its a pretty nice discussion going on out here…and (@iteron 10::dude i FIND no reason why we indians should not be obsessed about sachin tendulkar)..no doubt ricky ponting is one of the greats but at the same time we should not forget that its sachin upon whom indian team of 90`s depended upon to win a game…its sachin tendulkar who when fails has to go under extreme criticisms..not ricky ponting…and man when one performs that well under extreme pressure you just cant compare him with RICKY PONTING`s…sachin tendulkar is performing his duties well,what else can one do when his efforts go unnoticed when a team looses..its again indian attitude which i blame..and more importantly like my dear friend mr itearon10….soory mate but its not ur fault…u are those kinds who will blame sachin even if poor guy scores run a ball century and india looses….
and for all those like my friend itearon10 we are fools if we are not sachin obsessed…he is one of the things which indians can be obsessed about…coz he is the best batsman world cricket has ever seen..
cheers to sachin.
I completely agree with you Tarun….we must be obsessed
where else in the world you would get such a guy…
-20 years of unparalleled commitment under huge expectations
-Not even a momentary digression from goal even with hugh success/money at such a young age
-Ever seen a 36 year old patrolling the boundary so efficiently
-Extremely humble human being
-all current team players have grown up getting inspiration from this source…that’s the reason you see the change
You are again right in saying there are some people(losers/Manjrekars) who’ll always blame Sachin for whatever he does.
It’s easier said than done for these so called pundits…
thanx for the support mate…and i really liked u adding manjeraker angle to the discussion…what i feel is these ppl who have picked up the habit to blame sachin are nothing but loosers..manjeraker himself was not that great a cricketer…so according to me he has got no rights to speak against sachin tendulkar….leave sachin tendulkar…he cant even be compared to rohit sharma…(poor sharma…i am finding him too good compared to manjerakar)…and my dear friends observing something is light years easier than doing it…