The Men vs A God!!

The title and the timing would give you clues that I am talking about 'The God of Cricket' Sachin Tendulkar. A terrific innings of a hundred and seventy five runs under peak pressure of winning and getting close to winning the series. He was awarded the Man of the Match for this knock, while I think he should have a special award incomparable with human achievements in the world of Cricket! During his award winning speech Sachin told that he was 'disappointed' despite a great batting show he put on the field. His tone concurs his mood of unable to bring India to victory and I am sure in his mind, best knocks of his life would still be the twin centuries scored against Australia in Sharjah '97-'98. There is no question 10 years later he is not only better batsmen he has become 'The Best' India could ever imagine. And thats when we lose..

India for long depended on 'one man to win' theory and tried and will continue this trend. We need a HERO, always. I know India has travelled a long distance to be a team rather than a few players and fewer Gods. On the top of my head I could name a few greats.. Gavaskar, Srikanth, Kapil, Srinath, Sidhu, Dravid, Ganguly and above all and many more is Sachin. While Australia has a few great players (out of the ordinary) their ordinary players would hit 90's and make centuries on a foreign turf. Is the standard of cricket that is poor in India or is it because we still look up for One Heroic innings every time we watch match? I may not be following the series very well but one thing that India lacks is consistency in all three areas. While we had 12 or more misfields and gave away atleast 20 runs, Australia has saved and making run outs by falling and scraping knees and those few crucial runs which gave them an extreme advantage. While one of the well experienced bowlers is giving away runs like a high school amateur, Australian new-bee on his debut match picked up 3 wickets including Sachin's while giving away just 59 runs. To me he is the man. A 25 year old making a hundred and another making 90+ runs for their first wicket partnership while maintaining a 100+ strike rate at all time. They are no Gods just mere men who pulled Australia to their victory. Yes it is their win. It was not bad luck that India lost this match, it was one God who pulled so close to victory and the rest (mostly) failing to move a few more inches to win. Most of the statistics prove that Indian players lack consistency, a sine wave is not the way to play cricket it is only good for your heart! A players performance I believe should be an exponential or a almost straight line...

Some of you may think I am writing this because India lost this close match. While I may not deny that, I wanted to write this to remind that A God we worship in Indian Cricket could not win this match alone. We need MEN to fight our wars!