Sachin Tendulkar : The GOD of Cricket World !!

Hey everyone,
Today we saw one of the greatest player, Rahul Dravid retired from international cricket. And that might trigger the retirement process in Indian cricket team. And it gives opportunity to many (so-called) critics a chance to talk about other great players.
So, to make sure everyone know whom the critics want to retire after recent forgetful tour of India I've come up with this article. To start of my article,

Who is Sachin Tendulkar ?

To answer this question in detail, I might not be the right person. So, I'll let you know about him in short.
Sachin Tendulkar is known as God of cricket. He is the god of the religion CRICKET. The reason why he is given that title because he is the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket, as per many.
Wisden rated him the 2nd best batsmen of all times in test behind Don Bradman and 2nd best ODI batsmen after Viv Richard in the year 2002. He is the first man on earth to score a double century (200 runs) in ODI (one day international), a cricket game format. First man on Earth to score 10,000 runs in ODI cricket. He is known by many names, like master blaster, little master, little champion, nightmare for bowlers, etc..  by his fans.
He holds the record for most cricket matches played by an individual, most runs (in both test and ODI), highest centuries (100+ runs in an inning), and many others !

It is stated that Shane Warne, one of the greatest leg-spinners of all times, once said that, he has a nightmare of Sachin Tendulkar hitting him sixes all over the park, after the match where Sachin tendulkar actually gave him a nightmare.
More info about his personal life and career @ Sachin Tendulkar
You can see his contribution to Indian Team & cricket as a player @ Sachin Tendulkar
Cautionary Note: Don't ask this question to any of his die-hard fans, you might end up in out of shape !

Now, being a fan of Sachin Tendulkar Why am I writing this article today ?
Reason: As I stated earlier in this article, that many (so-called) critics want him to retire !
Let me introduce you to the Sachin Tendulkar in different style, that is the way in which he was never described till now.

Impact of Sachin tendulkar !
Sachin tendulkar has 48 centuries in ODI, does that make you say wow ! unbelievable ! Amazing !. But that is not the impact I'm talking about. I'm talking about the impact index which measures the impact of a player in a match he plays. Impact index is a scale whose range goes from 0 to 5 and it is based on players strike rate, pressure he absorbs on the field, average runs scored, and other factors of cricket. Sachin Tendulkar has got 74 times impact index as 5, and that is the highest times any player has got impact factor of 5 !
He got 55 times 5 impact index based on his batting and 19 times because of his bowling capabilities, and that means he is multi-skilled player.

What is his best landmark till now ?
Did you say Sachin Tendulkar scoring 200 against South Africa last year ?
Yes, then I'm afraid that I'm talking about that milestone. I agree that was one of the best innings of Sachin tendulkar and absolute delight for his fan, but there are other landmarks also like he scored 117 in 1st CB series final and 91 in 2nd CB series final in the year 2008, which made sure India win the best of 3 finals without even India playing 3rd ODI, 143 v/s Australia in Sharjah 1998, 95 v/s pakistan in finals of independence cup 1998, etc..

Highest Pressure Impact !
Pressure impact is measure of pressure a players faces on field when the wickets are tumbling/falling at the other end. Now, many would say it should be M.S. Dhoni, but contrary to this myth it is Sachin Tendulkar who has the highest Pressure impact among Indians. It is around 45%, and that is quite good.

Average runs doesn't speak truth !
When you see Sachin tendulkar's average,44.74 in ODI, it looks good but not great. He comes on 10th spot if you see the average of all the cricketers till now, who has minimum of 75 matches. And 3rd in current Indian team averages (Only M.S.Dhoni & Virat Kohli has more than him). But this doesn't speak about the greatness of this man ! As averages are calculated based on number of runs scored and number of times you got out. That is, it is screwed for batsmen who play till the end without getting out (even though he scores less).

Sachin Tendulkar is the Greatest chasers in Cricket World !
Many believes that he is good when setting up the target, but the fact is he has chased down opponents score 54 times with his partner on cricket field. It is the highest by any player in the world. Other Indians who come among the top 10 are Mohammad Azharuddin (44 times) & Yuvraj Sing (35 times). Jacques Kallis is second in the list, with 52 chased score and Ricky Pointing with 46 is on 3rd.

Remarkable Strike rate !
He has a strike rate (ratio of runs scored by number of balls faced) of 86.29 in ODI. And that is amazing for a player who has played more than 450 ODIs.

Can he play any cricketing stroke with perfection ?
Name any stroke of cricket and this little champion can hit the ball with his bat that strike with perfection ! See following images to see few examples of his stroke play,


Least failure rate as a batsmen !
Sachin Tendulkar has least failure rate among Indians and 14th overall, that is a player who didn't made an impact in a game which he played. That his he got impact index 0. Adam Gilchrist has the least failure rate in the world, though he has played only 287 matches, far lessthan matches played by Sachin tendulkar.

Greatest ODI Batsmen of current generation !
As stated earlier that he is the 2nd all time best ODI batsmen after Viv Richard, but Viv richard played in previous generation for us and in present generation we have Sachin Tendulkar !

Longevity & consistency !
The amount of time Sachin tendulkar spend on cricket and on cricket field tell us about his longevity. And the way he scored against all opponents every year tells us about his consistency.

Most Respected Cricketer in World !
He is the only cricketer who is respected by more then billion people in the world. He was never engaged in any major controversies and always carried himself on & off field gracefully.

Hopefully after reading this article some of the (so-called) critics shut there mouth, as they are no where near  his greatness !! And we will continue to see Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar on field smashing the bowlers all over the park and making his most awaited 100th international century. And Sachin Tendulkar doesn't retire from cricket soon.

Hope every cricket fan liked this article and share it to make sure everyone read & understand about the greatness of Sachin tendulkar, the God of cricket !
I'll be coming back articles like this in future as well, till then keep surfing Everything Under the Sun and have fun.. :)

India v/s Australia : Clash of Titans !!

Hey Everyone,
Today I'll be writing about Cricket (a game which is considered as religion in India whose god is treated to be Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar, a professional game in Australia) tournament which is going to be started with Boxing day test from 26th Dec, 2011 ! You will see the best of the best playing against each other to win tournament.

Actually, tournament started on a high note with Rahul Dravid from India gave Sir Don Bradman oration (first man on earth who is not an Australian), focusing on importance of test matches and the glory of test matches !

Now, back to action, almost all the cricket fans are awaiting for Star Batsmen Sachin Tendulkar from India to score 100th Century in international cricket, and become first batsmen in history achieve this feat, at MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia).

Currently India is positioned at No.2 (siped from No.1 after losing to England in India v/s England Series) in Test ranking & Australia at No.4, and that means you expect something interesting to happen.

Summary of Series:
How many Test Matches will India & Australia play in ongoing series ?
4
How many T20 Matches will India & Australia play in ongoing series ?
2
What is next ?
A tri-nation ODI (one day international) series, which includes India, Australia & Sri Lanka.
What kind of matches will India & Australia play ?
All test matches are day matches (as most of cricket fans know).
All T20 & ODI are day-night matches.

As Test series will start from 26th Dec, 2011 I'll be sharing the schedule for India v/s Australia test series and T20 matches in tabular format & as tournament goes on I'll be sharing the schedule for ODI series, which involve 3 nations (India, Australia, Sri Lanka).

India v/s Australia 2011 Test Series Schedule

Start Date	End Date	Place	Game start time (GMT)	Game Type
26th Dec, 2011	30th Dec, 2011	MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground)	23:30	Test
3rd Jan, 2012	7th Jan, 2012	SCG (Sydney Cricket Ground)	23:30	Test
13th Jan, 2012	17th Jan, 2012	Western Australia Cricket Association Ground, Perth	02:30	Test
24th Jan, 2012	28th Jan, 2012	Adelaide Oval	00:00	Test
1st Feb, 2012	1st Feb, 2012	Stadium Australia, Sydney	08:35	T20
3rd Feb, 2012	3rd Feb, 2012	MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground)	08:35	T20

More Cricket facts:

• India has never won a test series in Australia in 9 previous tournament in past 64 years !
• The odds of Sachin Tendulkar scoring 100th  international century at Boxing day test is 9/4 as per many bookies. And that is a huge odd !

Now, Let's see the line-up of the teams and try to compare them from following table,

Australia v/s India (First 7 Batsmen head-to-head)

Australia	Matches-Runs-Average		India
Ed Cowan	- (debut)	92 - 7980 - 52.2	Virender Sehwag
David Warner	2 - 153 - 76.5	44 - 3531 - 47.7	Gautam Gambhir
Shaun Marsh	3 - 284 - 56.8	160 - 13094 - 53.2	Rahul Dravid
Ricky Ponting	158 - 12656 - 52.3	184 - 15183 - 56.0	Sachin Tendulkar
Michael Clarke	76 - 5283 - 46.3	130- 8626 - 47.1	VVS Laxman
Michael Hussey	66 - 5196 - 50.4	4 - 191 - 27.3	Virat Kohli
Brad Haddin	39 - 2171 - 36.2	64 - 3407 - 38.3	MS Dhoni

Australia v/s India (4 Bowlers head-to-head)

Australia	Matches-Wickets-Average		India
Nathan Lyon	7 - 22 - 24.6	3 - 22 - 22.9	R Ashwin
Peter Siddle	27 - 91 - 31.7	79 - 273 - 31.8	Zaheer Khan
Ben Hilfenhaus	17 - 55 - 34.7	41 - 128 - 35.8	Ishant Sharma
James Pattinson	2 - 14 - 14.0	2 - 9 - 21.2	Umesh Yadav

Note: I've created comparison table assuming these players will be in playing 11 in test match from both the sides. Also, I've kept background color to signify the color of respective country. :)

Awaiting Milestones:

• Sachin Tendulkar scoring 100th international century.
• India winning test series in Australia for first time in history of 64 years.

So, Are you ready for clash of titans ?

Many critics predicted India winning the series with scoreline of 2-1.
Do you agree with critics ?
If no, the who do you think will win the series ? And can you guess the scoreline of the series ?

Waiting for the prediction in comments from all of you..

India v/s England test series & 2000th test match !

Hello everyone,
I'm back with an article on cricket ! The game loved by billions and it is like a religion in India and the GOD is Sachin Tendulkar. India and England will be playing 4 test matches (5 day match, played with red color ball and dress code  for cricketers is white). The first test started from 21st July, 2011, which is the 100th test match between India and england and 2000th test match in the history of test matches in cricket, which tell you how old the test matches are !

What is test match in Cricket ? (in brief)
A match which goes till a team wins or for 5 days, 90 overs each day. Each team has to play two innings in these 5 days. It is traditionally played with red ball, instead of white color ball which is preferred in ODI and dress code for cricketers is white. Playing a Test match is a great honor for any player, as while playing it and to be successful you need patience, great concentration, dedication & determination to stay on pitch while you are batting. And for bowlers it is a test of there capability to take wickets. For a team to win the match it has to take 20 wickets of the opponent and should have aggregate runs scored in two innings more than its opponent. If a team couldn't capture 20 wickets of opponent then it can't win any test match !

A brief history of test Cricket:
1877: The year when test matches started
1920-21: First white-washed five test match series. Australia thrashed England in 5 test series by 5-0
1928: Australia's Sir Don Bradman (average run scored by him in test matches = 99.94) made his debut in Test cricket
1930: Sir Don Bradman scored 974 runs in 5 test match series, a world record
1938: Len Hutton from England scored 364 runs in one inning, a record at that time, against Australia
1948: Sir Don bradman retires from test cricket. He needed only 4 runs in the last test to have a average of 100 but he was out on golden duck, that is he scored zero !

1956: Jim Laker from England takes 10 wicket haul in an inning against Australia. The only other bowler to achieve this feat is Anil Kumble from India.
1958: Gary Sobers from West indies breaks Len Hutton's record for highest runs in an inning by scoring 365 against Pakistan.
1960: World saw first tied test match, that is both the teams were able to capture 20 wickets and there aggregate score was equal. Teams involved in this test were Australia and West Indies
1964: Fred trueman became first man on earth to capture 300 wickets.
1986: World witness 2nd and the last tied test match until now. The teams involved in the test match were India and Australia.
1990: New Zealand's Richard Hadlee becomes the first bowler on earth to take 400 Test wickets, that is he dismissed atleast 400 batsmen till then.
1992: South Africa returns to test arena
1994: West Indies batsmen Brian Lara, icon for cricket lovers in West Indies, Breaks the highest runs scored in an Inning by scoring 375 against England at Antigua
1997: The highest runs aggregated by a team in an inning were scored by Sri Lanka, that is they scored 954 for 6 against India, still a world record !
2001: West Indies Courtney Walsh reached the magical figure of 500 test wickets, that is he took 500 test wickets, the first man on earth to achieve that feat.
2002: Sachin Tendulkar scores 30th Century to surpasses Sir Don Bradman in test cricket.

2003: Australia's Matthew Hayden breaks Brian lara record for highest runs scored by an individual in a test match by scoring 380 against minnows, Zimbabwe.
2004: Brian Lara scores first quadruple century, that is he scored 400 (not out), to regain his world record for highest number of runs scored by an individual in an inning.
2006:  First team to loses a test match by forfeiting it. And the the team which has this honor is Pakistan.
2010: Sri Lanka's all time greatest off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan takes 800th test wicket, a world record, which is unlikely to be broken by any cricketers in near future.

2010: Sachin tendulkar (Master blaster or the god of Cricket or Little Master) from India scored 50th test Ton, that is 50th test century and became the first man in the world to achieve this feat ! And till now nobody has reached even 40 test centuries other than him !

Why is cricket lovers eagerly waiting India v/s England test series ?

1. Sachin Tendulkar can re-write history if he scores a century in this series, then he will be the only man on earth to score 100 international centuries, that he will complete 100 times scoring 100 or more than 100 runs in International cricket. At present he has 51 test hundreds, century, and 48 ODI hundreds, that is total of 99 international centuries !
   
   
2. The 100th test Between India and England was stared, and world witnessed 2000th test match !
3. And the other thing the cricket world is waiting for is to see that can India retain or show the world why it is No.1 in test ranking.

The test matches are at the brink of losing its shine/status because of more entertaining formats of cricket, that is T20 and ODI. And everyone hopes that the test series like this one will make sure that test cricket doesn't become extinct or a history !

The schedule for India v/s England test Series is as follows,

• 1st Test: From 21st July, 2011 to 25th July, 2011 at Lord's, London, England
• 2nd test: From 29th July, 2011 to 2nd August, 2011 at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, England
• 3rd Test: From 10th August, 2011 to 14th August, 2011 at Edgbaston, Birmingham, England
• 4th Test: From 18th August, 2011 to 22th August, 2011 at Kennington Oval, London, England

Hope you liked this article about cricket and the 2000th Test match !
We will be sharing information like this regularly to make you aware of various facts and ongoing events, so keep visiting this blog till then have fun and Good bye... :)

Cricket World cup 2011, Biggest Tournament of Cricket World, Semi-Finals !

In 4 days we saw 4 quarter final matches in Cricket World cup, and in these 4 days 4 teams started there journey towards next round, that is semi finals and other 4 teams started there journey towards Home. In First match Pakistan thrashed West Indies comfortably and in second match we saw the World Champions, Australia, losing to India going empty hands this time, after winning 3 cricket world cup final (1999, 2003, 2007) consecutively. In 3rd match New Zealand won against South Africa, which was unexpected as South Africa was one of the strong contender to win this year world cup ! And in the last quarter Final match Sri Lanka won the match against England Comfortably.

Before I start talking about Semi Finals, let me give brief summary of quarterfinal matches.
Cricket World Cup 2011 Quarter Final Match - 1 : Pakistan v/s West Indies
Winner: Pakistan
Even before the match started many expected that Pakistan will win this match, as they are were doing good work from group stage matches by stopping opponents to score more runs. West Indies were struggling from there form as they received some major blow just before the tournament started, that is some players of West Indies were injured while practicing and some while playing match. And that is the reason they were bowl out for a score of 112 in 43.3 overs. Shahid Afridi (captainf of Pakistan team) and Pakistan Team showed great character while batting and won the match by 10 wickets.

Cricket World Cup 2011 Quarter Final Match - 2 : India v/s Australia
Winner: India
Considered to be one of the most exciting match of the tournament, and it turned out to be. India won the match against kangaroos a=made sure that kangaroo's journey towards winning the cup 4th time halt.

Cricket World Cup 2011 Quarter Final Match - 3 : New Zealand v/s South Africa
Winner: New Zealand
Everyone expected South Africa to win, but New Zealand made sure that expecttions can go wrong and won the match handsomely.

Cricket World Cup 2011 Quarter Final Match - 4 : Sri Lanka v/s England
Winner: Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka team is on a dream run. There openers are firing and making sure that there middle order is not exposed to new ball and they are giving solid opening partnership for there team. They won this match by defeating the creator of cricket game, England.

Semi-Finals:

Cricket World Cup 2011 Semi Final Match - 1 :  Sri Lanka v/s New Zealand
Winner: Sri Lanka
As I told earlier Sri Lankan team is on a dream run and they crushed New Zealand in 1st semi final and made sure they are in Finals, which is going to be held in Mumbai.

Cricket World Cup 2011 Semi Final Match - 2 : India v/s Pakistan
Winner: India
India met arch rivals, Pakistan on 30th march, 2011 in 2nd semi final match of the cricket world cup 2011 and made sure that also book there berth for Finals to meet Sri Lanka on 2nd April, 2011. Sachin Tendulkar was the top scorer of the match and was awarded man of the match for his effort. Though his innings was not too much convincing as he was given life 4 times in the match, courtesy Pakistani fielders.

Now..
The Finals will be played on 2nd April, 2011 in Mumbai. Make sure you don't miss the finals, as it will be one of the finest match ever played in history of cricket !