Sachiiiiin ! Sachin !…Sachiiiiin ! Sachin !….gets his 100th international cricket ton finally today

Sachiiiiin ! Sachin !…Sachiiiiin ! Sachin !….gets his 100th international cricket ton finally today

After Months of endeavour,eagerness and expectations and some anxiety,Sachin Tendulkar finally scored his 100th International 100 against Bangla Desh in the Asian Cup ODI today….100 in 138 Balls

It’s been over a year since Sachin Tendulkar got his 99th International Century and this is what I had humurously blogged last year in March 2011 when India was to face Pakistan in the World Cup ODI Semi Finals in Mohali  

Why Sachin will not be able to score his 100th 100 at Mohali in the World Cup semi-final when India meets and beats Pakistan……

Monday, March 28th, 2011

Update at 10.45 pm

India Lost to Bangladesh !…..289 was what India scored and 290 winning target was chased down by Bangladesh in 49.2 overs ! losing just 5 wickets…..so Sachin Tendulkar,like all of us too, must have mixed feelings !….he did not even get the Man of the Match Award ….their middle order simply cracked superb cameos….Man of the Match,Shakib Al Hasan smashed 49 of just 31 Balls with Two 6s and Five 4s…Captain Mushfiqur Rahim went berserk hitting Three 6s and Three 4s on his way to an unbeated 46 of just 25 balls…Rank Bad Bowling with juicy full tosses,wide and no ball ,and balls in the slot,at the Death by Irfan Pathan(gave away 19 in the 48th over) and Praveen Kumar made the Bangladesh batsmen look better than they really are…they had nothing to lose and were throwing their bat at everything and coming good

Sachin Tendulkar must reflect on this…he says he has never played for milestones or for his 100th century…but the reality belies this fact….he took 34 Innings and over a Year  from his 99th Century to get to his 100th Century today….the pressure surely was telling on him….glad this milestone is now out of the way,as he too put it….”getting the 100th 100 was the most difficult of all the 100s” he confessed at the post match press conference

….but what everyone seems to overlook is at his strike rate statistics breakup in today’s loss….he had scored 81 of 96 Balls …that is a superb strike rate of 84+%…his average in ODIs is a fabulous 86%….then he inexplicably slowed down considerably….his next 19 runs came of 42 balls to give him his century in 138 balls….his strike rate nearly halved to just 45+% !…inexcusable !….seems he was playing safe to ensure his century….especially after he came close to doing so in Mumbai…..finally  he was out scoring 114 of 146 balls…which means his last 14 runs after he scored 100 came of just 8 balls !…that’s a strike rate of 175% !….if you consider that Bangladesh achieved the target with just 4 balls to spare you can not help but feel that Sachin’s slowing down after 81 till he reached his century contributed to the loss….that is his scoring just 19 of 42 balls …..he could have scored another 20 odd runs ….it was even in and around the batting powerplay 

….not taking away anything from the swashbuckling winning display by Bangladesh Batsmen and even from the greatness of Sachin….but this feeling that Sachin should have not frozen when approaching his century stays with me…to me,it was also a contributory factor to the loss…heart of hearts I’m sure he feels this too !

His Last Five Centuries have not resulted in a win for India…a test match was drawn,and ODI was tied and three we lost,including today’s ODI