With the World Cup around the corner, cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar gave batsmen in international cricket a peek into his mantra for success while batting in the challenging conditions and wickets of Australia and New Zealand.
One of the most decorated cricketers in the history of the game, Tendulkar played in six World Cups from 1992 to 2011. The one in 1992 was his maiden appearance at the quadrennial extravaganza.
“Perth and Brisbane are renowned for their fast and bouncy wickets that will easily expose inexperience. Both, batsmen and bowlers have low margins for errors. As a batsman, if you understand the pace and bounce, then you could get on top of the bowling,” Tendulkar wrote in his World Cup column for ICC.
He added: “For the bowler, the good-length spot is smaller in area on these wickets and the batsman can capitalise if the line and length falters. But if they extract bounce from the good length areas, then it would make the batsman’s life difficult.”
The 41-year-old, who retired from international cricket in November 2013, cautioned the batsmen to be wary of the wind factor in New Zealand. “In New Zealand, batsmen will have to beware of the windy conditions due to the geographical locations of some of the venues.
The wind sometimes can be strong enough to seriously affect a batsman’s timing, playing against the wind your back lift is faster but the down-swing is considerably slow, while the ball is coming on faster - and vice-versa from the other end.” Tendulkar is the most successful batsman in ICC’s pinnacle event with 2,278 runs in 45 matches, including 482 runs in nine matches in India’s successful campaign in the 2011 World Cup.
He spoke about the ground shapes and long boundaries in Australia and New Zealand. “The other peculiarity of grounds in New Zealand is that not all of them are the traditional round shape. In Australia, the Adelaide Oval, true to its name, has shorter boundaries at point and square leg but very long straight boundaries. As a visiting team, this makes a big difference because it affects the field positions and bowling strategies,” Tendulkar said.
“The bigger grounds in Australia also result in longer boundaries. I remember when they had full boundaries during the ‘99 series, I called for a fourth run on a Ricky Ponting throw from the boundary. We ran in spite of Ricky’s strong arm, knowing that the ball would take some time to reach the wicketkeeper. Even though the boundaries have been brought in since then, they continue to be long.
“For players struggling with form, the additional fielder in the circle will pose a challenge as rotating the strike will be tougher. But at the same time, as a batsman let me say that if we have two in-form batsmen at the crease ... Then, God help the bowlers!”
Tendulkar is the leading run-getter in ODIs with 18,426 runs in 463 matches. Tendulkar was the player of the 2003 World Cup when India finished runner-up to Australia.
Winning 2011 World Cup was priceless moment
New Delhi: Revealing an unknown emotional side to his personality, retired batting legend Sachin Tendulkar recalled how “happy tears” rolled out of his eyes when India won the 2011 World Cup, and termed the moment as “priceless”.
Narrating the final moments when India defeated Sri lanka, the iconic cricketer said he thanked the Gods, screamed and ran out of the dressing room to the middle.
“I did cry when I went out in the middle... I did cry. This was the only time I had happy tears... Because that moment was just a priceless moment. That moment was something that you can only dream off,” remembered Tendulkar.
Tendulkar further revealed that nothing came close to that moment when he lifted the World Cup. “It was not my trophy, it was our trophy, it was the nation’s trophy,” Tendulkar told Headlines Today.
The 41-year-old said while the team was confident of lifting the Cup it was always guarding against complacency. “Anything is possible in sports and I was hoping that we continue that form as we were playing good cricket...I knew that we had the firepower to finish the game easily,” Tendulkar said.
India lifted the World Cup after a gap of 28 years in Mumbai and Tendulkar felt the team peaked at the right time. “We didn’t start off as well. We were either not bowling well or battling well. Put together as a package we were not clicking. If we batted well, we did not bowl well and if we bowled well, batting was not up to the mark. We started peaking at the right time and both started becoming a formidable package. Obviously we fielded well also,” he said.
Heaping praise on the entire 2011 team, the ace cricketer said all the players performed well and were aggressive. “Ashish Nehra, Munaf (Patel), Zaheer (Khan), Harbhajan (Singh)...They were all aggressive and you got to hold these guys back. It matters how you show your aggression,” Tendulkar said.
“Viru is a very unpredictable batsman. The opposition would not know what he was going to do. Standing at the non-strikers end, I had started to figure out what he was going to do. For Yuvraj, something happened right from the first game and that continued till the last game.”
Sunny, Chappell tip India to beat Pakistan again
Sydney: Sunil Gavaskar and Ian Chappell tipped India as favourites in their much anticipated World Cup clash against Pakistan, saying that past history and better acclimatisation to Australian conditions could tilt the balance in favour of the defending champions.
“Both teams are going into the World Cup not in great touch. Pakistan are also struggling as they had lost to New Zealand recently, it could be even stevens. But I think India will start as slight favourites because of their past records,” Gavaskar told NDTV.
Chappell agreed with Gavaskar and said “They (Pakistan) won the World Cup in 1992 but at that time they had so many match-winners in Imran Khan, Javed Miandad, Wasim Akram, Inzamam-ul-Haq. They don’t have those match-winners in the current team. The loss of Junaid Khan is also a big blow for them. PTI