Sachin's brilliant 175 against the Aussies

Sunday today, yet another match against the touring Aussies.

It is played a couple of days after that familiar defeat at Hyderabad sometime last week. And am not sure if Sachin is playing today's match or if he did, not aware if he scored or not. Afterall we have a few more batsmen who are paid to perform.

The humble myself as a cricketer of reasonably good abilities, i must admit i was fortunate to see that brilliant 175 last week at Hyderabad.

I have always held this against Sachin - that he is not a Lara or a Ponting or a Jayawarene or a Jayasuriya, or a Gibbs. He has never won a match single handedly for the team. Or if he did, there have been fewer. And he failed to do so yet again at Hyderabad. That said, i cannot ignore what must rank as one of his best innings.
Often a good innings by a batsman is measured against playing conditions, the pitch especially. Thats why i still rate Vishy's 97 against Windies at chennai decades ago as a masterpiece of an innings. It was a difficult pitch against the fiery Roberts and Co.
This innings by Sachin last week was an effort to chase a monumental total. Cricket is often a mind-game. Bevan and Richards had tremendous mental strength in their own ways. Sachin played every stroke in the book, rotated strike cleverly, ran quite efficiently, paced his innings absolutely brilliantly and Aussies never realised the pain of moving closer to defeat. Until fatigue or his penchant for disappointing India overtook....
My brother often would say Indian cricket must have turned many ardent sports-lovers into incorrigible alcoholics.