Pratters
Cricket, Lovely Cricket
I begin with a link to a detailed interview Tendulkar has given in Telegraph, India.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050501/asp/sports/story_4683321.asp
A few pointers :
On Sehwag
The free flow and swing of his bat… Also, his thought process is very good. It may appear he goes bang-bang-bang, but that’s not so. Sehwag plans, doesn’t close his eyes and swing... He’s aware of the areas he needs to target.
On Kumble
Barring a few matches, he has always been at his best… One gets to hear a lot about Anil not spinning the ball and not doing this or that… Well, now that he has 461 Test wickets, people must keep their mouths shut. If they still are intent on criticising him, they ought to first have a closer look at themselves.
On Ganguly
He tried to score, but couldn’t… He wanted to contribute and feel good, but couldn’t… Clearly, the criticism didn’t help... That Sourav’s form became such a big issue just didn’t help him … As I’ve said, you’ve got to make an allowance for failure.
Probably for the first time he explained why he batted the way he did in the third test versus Pakistan which came for a lot of criticism, SJS said he was disappointed by Tendulkar for the FIRST time in his career. Javed Miandad in a cricket column wrote how it was the wrong approach to play. Its still an inning which intrigues quite a few people including me because of the defensive approach Tendulkar followed in the inning.
Following are the reasons which Tendulkar gives for the plan of the team and why he batted the way he did
On why he went into a shell
It’s easy for people to talk… The close-in fielders, though, would have moved away only if we had a chance of winning… And, with four wickets (Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, V.V.S. Laxman and Sourav Ganguly) falling in the second session, where was that chance? Where was that support for me to play positively? In any case, (Virender) Sehwag had got out in the opening session itself… Those who were free with criticism should understand nothing would have been achieved (at that stage) by trying to be positive… It was a fifth day wicket with dual bounce and the ball often didn’t spin the way it threatened to… My objective was to kill time, without giving the opposition any chance to break through… There are times when, playing positively, you play a shot which is just 80 per cent safe… I didn’t want to give Pakistan even a 20 per cent chance on any shot from my bat. After all, a draw would have given us the series... If you recall, I’d started differently, hitting (Mohammed) Sami for a four on probably the second ball. But, then, wickets began to fall and I had to adjust. Indeed, playing a few shots wouldn’t have changed Pakistan’s game plan.
on India's game plan
To have enough wickets in hand by the end of the third hour, a situation which would have helped us control the Test… Given that Sehwag left early, our best chance of winning was to have been only one-down when the fourth hour began.
on getting out
I’d been playing for the team… I’d been telling myself I had to be patient… That I had to take it ball by ball… I was upset.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050501/asp/sports/story_4683321.asp
A few pointers :
On Sehwag
The free flow and swing of his bat… Also, his thought process is very good. It may appear he goes bang-bang-bang, but that’s not so. Sehwag plans, doesn’t close his eyes and swing... He’s aware of the areas he needs to target.
On Kumble
Barring a few matches, he has always been at his best… One gets to hear a lot about Anil not spinning the ball and not doing this or that… Well, now that he has 461 Test wickets, people must keep their mouths shut. If they still are intent on criticising him, they ought to first have a closer look at themselves.
On Ganguly
He tried to score, but couldn’t… He wanted to contribute and feel good, but couldn’t… Clearly, the criticism didn’t help... That Sourav’s form became such a big issue just didn’t help him … As I’ve said, you’ve got to make an allowance for failure.
Probably for the first time he explained why he batted the way he did in the third test versus Pakistan which came for a lot of criticism, SJS said he was disappointed by Tendulkar for the FIRST time in his career. Javed Miandad in a cricket column wrote how it was the wrong approach to play. Its still an inning which intrigues quite a few people including me because of the defensive approach Tendulkar followed in the inning.
Following are the reasons which Tendulkar gives for the plan of the team and why he batted the way he did
On why he went into a shell
It’s easy for people to talk… The close-in fielders, though, would have moved away only if we had a chance of winning… And, with four wickets (Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, V.V.S. Laxman and Sourav Ganguly) falling in the second session, where was that chance? Where was that support for me to play positively? In any case, (Virender) Sehwag had got out in the opening session itself… Those who were free with criticism should understand nothing would have been achieved (at that stage) by trying to be positive… It was a fifth day wicket with dual bounce and the ball often didn’t spin the way it threatened to… My objective was to kill time, without giving the opposition any chance to break through… There are times when, playing positively, you play a shot which is just 80 per cent safe… I didn’t want to give Pakistan even a 20 per cent chance on any shot from my bat. After all, a draw would have given us the series... If you recall, I’d started differently, hitting (Mohammed) Sami for a four on probably the second ball. But, then, wickets began to fall and I had to adjust. Indeed, playing a few shots wouldn’t have changed Pakistan’s game plan.
on India's game plan
To have enough wickets in hand by the end of the third hour, a situation which would have helped us control the Test… Given that Sehwag left early, our best chance of winning was to have been only one-down when the fourth hour began.
on getting out
I’d been playing for the team… I’d been telling myself I had to be patient… That I had to take it ball by ball… I was upset.
agreed
