Tag: Tendulkar

The South African fast bowler Morne Morkel feels that Sachin Tendulkar will be missed by the young Indian test team in the upcoming couple of test matches.

Morkel was talking to the reporters yesterday in Johannesburg about the first test match which is going to start on Wednesday.

When asked about Sachin’s absence, he said, “I think they are going to miss him. He was one of those guys who have the ability to stay at the wicket for hours and put a lot of pressure on the bowling side.”

“The young batsmen who are in the Indian squad at the moment have also got a lot of potential, but, they are quite aggressive by nature. They try to attack the bowling and that was clear in the One Day international series.”

When asked if he thinks that the first game will be a low scoring one, Morkel said, “It’s not necessary. Yes, the surface is bouncy here in Johannesburg and the bowlers are always in with a chance of getting wickets, but, once a batsman gets his eyes in, he gets runs quickly here because the shots can be played on the up and the outfield is pretty fast too. So, you get value for your shots.”

The Indian team definitely has had a tough time on this tour of South Africa so far, but, they can take heart from the fact that their performance at Johannesburg in the past has not been that poor. Seven years ago in 2006, they had secured a test win over South Africa here.

The right arm fast bowler S Sreesanth was the stand out performer for the Indian team in that game as he had dismissed a total of 8 South African players.

The young Indian top order batsman Virat Kohli has said that watching Sachin Tendulkar bat in Sharjah in the nineties motivated him a lot.

According to Virat, the way Tendulkar used to dominate each and every bowler during that period was remarkable.

Tendulkar has recently announced his retirement from test cricket. The upcoming test series against West Indies will be his last series. He has already quit the shorter versions of the game. So, after the two test matches against the Caribbean team, he will not be seen in action on the ground again.

The Indian fans are hugely disappointed with the fact they will not see the master blaster taking on the bowlers again, but, the good news for them is that India has found out a young batsman who has started dominating the bowlers in the same way as Tendulkar used to do when he was at his peak. That young batsman is none other than Virat Kohli. This 24 years old guy from Delhi is well on his way of becoming one of the greats of the game.

Talking to the reporters yesterday about Tendulkar, Virat said, “Sachin bhai has inspired me a lot. I had watched some of the innings that he had played in Sharjah 13-14 years ago and the way he took on some of the legendary bowlers there was awesome. He won the games on his own and after watching him bat like that, I also started dreaming of playing similar kinds of knocks for my nation.”

When asked about Sachin’s last series which is going to start in a couple of days’ time, Virat said, “We will try to make sure that he gets a fantastic farewell. We will give our 100% to win those 2 games for him.”

Sachin Tendulkar played a knock of 37 runs in India’s first innings on the fourth day of the third test match against Australia which was played at PCA Stadium, Mohali.

Tendulkar didn’t look in great nick while playing that knock. He struggled against the Aussie bowlers and got beaten on quite a few deliveries.

When Tendulkar came to bat, India needed some quick runs as there was not much time left in the test match. But, Tendulkar didn’t manage to do that for his team. He was looking rusty and was not timing the ball well.

He hit a few boundaries, but, he never looked to be dominating the bowlers. Also, the ball was reverse swinging at that time and Peter Siddle was bowling with a fantastic line and length. He was not giving Tendulkar any chance to free his arms.

The boundaries were not coming, but, Tendulkar didn’t throw his wicket away in frustration. He knew that he just had to play that spell of Peter Siddle carefully and thereafter, the runs would start coming quickly. So, he tried to hang in there.

When the spinners came into attack, Tendulkar slowly started to get into his groove. He hit a couple of fours and it seemed that he was ready to take the Aussie bowlers apart.

But, just before the lunch break, the Australian captain Michael Clarke brought the part time leg spinner Steven Smith into the attack and Smith dismissed Tendulkar on the very first ball of his over. That ball hit the rough and then spun sharply. There was also a bit of bounce on that delivery. Tendulkar tried to defend it, but, the ball hit his gloves and went straight into the hands of the fielder at forward short leg.

The little master faced 81 deliveries and hit 5 fours.