Despite fiasco in final, Sachin is simply the best

Yes, he flunked in the final. But the conditions in the final weren’t usual. And the occasion served to remind us that the man is, after all, mortal.

The scintillating cricket that has flown from Sachin Tendulkar’s bat in the past five weeks — beginning with the match against Zimababwe — have delighted cricket fans the world over. But it has made another, equally important, point: it has laid to rest the perception that India don’t win when Tendulkar scores, and that he can’t rise to the big occasion.

Tendulkar has never been a choker in one-day cricket. While it is true that some of his best and high-scoring Test innings haven’t coincided with India winning the match, the same is not true in the limited overs version. And Operation Desert Storm against Australia in Sharjah isn’t the only example to prove this point.

Statistics, as usual, come first. Tendulkar has 34 centuries and 62 half-centuries in ODIs. That’s a total of 96 knocks of 50 or more. Of these, India have won 64 matches; 26 times when Tendulkar scored a century, and 38 times when he touched at least 50.

He has played 31 finals — triangular series or multi-nation series. In these, 12 times he has passed 50, with India winning eight times and four those wins with Tendulkar scoring centuries.

Of course, there have been some bad phases. The long one after Shane Warne’s ‘nightmarish’ series, when the most prized back in India was injured. It followed another period when Tendulkar curbed his favourite one-day shots and went into a shell of sorts. This was also the phase, though he aggregated over 1,000 in the year, when he had a severe loss of confidence, and flopped more often than he does usually. In a sense, it was his most mortal phase.

But in World Cup 2003, Tendulkar has returned to where he belongs. Right at the top. The king of the heap.

He has amassed 673 runs from his 11 innings — with a sequence of 52, 36, 81, 152, 50, 98, 5, 97, 15, 83 and 4. Fantastic by any yardstick. Except the 100s column. He has just one. And the fact that the last figure there is a sorry looking four. He fell twice in the 80s and twice in the 90s. Disappointing, indeed, by his standards.

But just the right thing, perhaps, to keep him hungry and wait for the next edition in the West Indies. He’ll be there, as will be the best bowlers in the world. And Tendulkar will be out to shatter the last-standing myth. That he just doesn’t have it in him to win the World Cup for India.