Wednesday 13 November 2013

The one and only ... Sachin !!!


Hello to all cricket lovers around the world. I am Deepu Narayanan, an ardent fan of the great game called  ‘Cricket’ & its Statistics.  I have been following the game passionately for the past 17 years of my life & it was one of my dreams for many years to share with you the various numbers which fascinated me related to the game.  With my blog ‘The Sight Screen’ many interesting facts & figures related to cricket is just a click away for you. And there is no better day to launch it than the one in which the greatest cricketer our nation has ever produced, The God of Cricket, Sachin Tendulkar will wear the Indian jersey for one last time. The first article ever on this blog is dedicated to the Little Master & his fans. Hope all of you will have fun in reading the article.

Sachin!!! It’s more of a feeling than a name for cricket fans in India. The records in his name are just like the number of fans he has across the world – inestimable. Even though the contribution of Sachin to Team India is beyond mere numbers, the numbers associated with him underlines his greatness. By this article I intend to dissect his test career on various aspects and provide you an insight into his career in numbers.
A curly haired young prodigy from Mumbai made his debut versus arch rivals Pakistan on Nov 15, 1989 at the National Stadium in Karachi. It was also Kapildev’s 100th test match. He scored 15 runs off 24 balls in the only innings he batted with bat & bowled 5 wicket less overs of leg spin in the match. From there on his career progressed steadily northwards. There are few peaks not scaled in his 24 year long career. He was Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.

A young Tendulkar
  

Batting career:
Tests
Inngs
Runs
Balls
Avg
100s
50s
Highest
NOs
Fours
Sixes
199
328
15847
29319+
53.71
51
67
248*
33
2046+
69

Sachin has scored 1000+ runs against all oppositions except Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. His 11 hundreds against Australia, the best team of his times (in 39 matches, 74 inngs), are the highest by any player against a particular opposition since he made his debut. He is also third in the list with 9 hundreds against Sri Lanka (25 matches, 36 inngs). He was also the third player to score a test century against all opposition after Gary Kirsten and Steve Waugh.

Batting – Opposition wise:

Team
Span
Matches
Inngs
Runs
Avg
Highest
NOs
100
50
Aus
1991-2013
39
74
3630
55.00
241*
8
11
16
Bang
2000-2010
7
9
820
131.66
248*
3
5
0
Eng
1990-2012
32
53
2535
51.73
193
4
7
13
NZ
1990-2012
24
39
1595
46.91
217
5
4
8
Pak
1989-2007
18
27
1057
42.28
194*
2
2
7
SA
1992-2011
25
45
1741
42.46
169
4
7
5
SL
1990-2010
25
36
1995
60.45
203
3
9
6
WI
1994-2013
20
31
1556
53.65
179
2
3
9
Zim
1192-2002
9
14
918
76.50
201*
2
3
3



Sachin Tendulkar has played a record 94 test matches in home which is 2 more than the next placed Ricky Ponting (92 tests in Australia). Among the current lot Kallis (86), Mahela (77), Chanderpaul (73) come next.
 
Batting – Country wise:

Country
Span
Matches
Inngs
Runs
Avg
Highest
NOs
100
50
Aus
1991-2012
20
38
1809
53.20
241*
4
6
7
Bang
2000-2010
7
9
820
131.66
248*
3
5
0
Eng
1990-2011
17
30
1575
54.31
193
1
4
8
Ind
1990-2013
93
156
7142
52.51
217
16
22
31
NZ
1990-2009
11
18
842
49.52
160
1
2
5
Pak
1989-2006
10
13
483
40.52
194*
1
1
2
SA
1992-2011
15
28
1161
46.44
169
3
5
3
SL
1993-2010
12
19
1155
67.94
203
2
5
4
WI
1997-2002
10
14
620
47.69
117
1
1
5
Zim
1992-2002
4
7
240
40.00
74
1
0
2


Batting - Home & Away:


Span
Matches
Inngs
Runs
Avg
Highest
NOs
100
50
Home
1990-2013
93
152
7142
52.51
217
16
22
31
Away
1989-2012
106
176
8705
54.74
248*
17
29
36




Sachin has batted at his customary No.4 position through the bulk of his career & scored 44 of his 51 centuries from there. He is also one of the 2 players to aggregate 10,000+ runs from a particular batting position (13418 at No.4), other being Rahul Dravid (10524 at No.3). Sachin top scored in an innings for India 78 times which is the most for any batsman. The lowest score he has never achieved in test cricket is 30. The score on which he was dismissed the most was 8 – 12 times in his career.

Batting – Position Wise:

Position
Span
Matches
Inngs
Runs
Avg
Highest
NOs
100
50
Opening
1999-1999
1
1
15
15.00
15
0
0
0
4
1992-2013
176
274
13418
54.32
248*
27
44
57
5
1993-2011
26
29
1552
59.69
169
3
5
6
6
1989-2008
14
20
745
43.82
148*
3
2
4
7
1989-1991
3
4
117
29.25
41
0
0
0


Sachin’s career can be classified into 4 periods.

The Child Prodigy (1989-1992)
In his formative years he batted mostly at No.6. His first big tryst with three-figures was at Old Trafford against England. At 17 years and 112 days, he was become Test cricket's second youngest centurion. Wisden noted: "He looked the embodiment of India's famous opener, Gavaskar, and indeed was wearing a pair of his pads." He came into bat with India at 109/4 trying to save the test match from where he shared an unbeaten 160 run partnership with Manoj Prabhakar and thereby securing a draw. His next big series was Down Under in Australia in 1992 where he racked up 2 centuries (at SCG & WACA) and thereby becoming youngest ever test centurion in Australian soil. About his 114 on a lethal WACA pitch - "That is when I felt that, yes, now I am here to play cricket anywhere in the world, any bowling attack and I am confident enough to tackle them," he would say, years later.

The Sole Saviour (1992-2001)
It was during this phase of his career that he became the pillar of Indian batting line up. He almost single handedly carried the entire batting on his shoulders. Even though India won just 2 matches away from home during this period, he scored hundreds round the world in Australia, SA, SL, NZ and England. He scored a brilliant 169 vs SA at Wanderes sharing 222-run partnership in just 40 overs with Azharuddin. His innings of 155* against Aussies on a dry Chennai pitch where he went ballistic against Shane Warne was the highlight of the series. He was in such imperious form that made Aussie captain Mark Taylor remark, “We didn’t lose to team called India but to a man called Tendulkar”. In the first test b/w India and Pakistan in 9 years, at Chennai, he scored 136 runs in India’s 4th innings chase of 271. He fell at 17 short of the target as rest of his team mates folded out for another 4 runs giving Pakistan a 12 run victory. It was also during this period where he took up India’s captaincy. In the disastrous tour to Australia at the wake of new millennium, Tendulkar made 116 out of a total of 238 at the MCG in 1999, a Test India lost by 180 runs. His first double hundred came up against NZ at Ahmedabad in 1999.

Fabulous Four (2001-2011)
After the infamous match fixing scandal in 2000, everyone looked at Sachin as the messiah who can restore the fans faith in the game. He took up the mission under the new captain, his long-time opening partner in ODIs, Saurav Ganguly along with Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Javagal Srinath, Anil Kumble & Virender Sehwag and thus began “The Golden Era in Indian Cricket”. India started to win test matches abroad in Australia, England, WI, Pakistan and SA. Finally he had someone else to share the batting work load which was almost non-existent during the first half of his career. Along with Dravid, Ganguly & Laxman - The Fab Four – India formed a formidable middle order. Tendulkar's 117 - his first and only century in the West Indies - helped India win a tense Test in Trinidad by 37 runs and it put him level with Don Bradman on 29 centuries. Tendulkar scored 193 in his 99th Test, at Headlingley in 2002, contributing significantly to India's innings-and-46-run victory. Tendulkar ended a two-year fallow period with an unbeaten 241 at the SCG in 2004, an innings in which he cut out shots between mid-off and point because he was falling to them. "I would put this innings right at the top of my hundreds," he said. His 194* in Multan was his first test century in Pakistan and also paved way for India’s first victory in Pakistan. With his personal best of 248* vs Bangladesh in Dhaka, Sachin completed test centuries against every opposition he played with. In what was Tendulkar’s finest hour, he scored an unbeaten 103 against England in a massive successful 4th innings chase of 387 at Chennai, his fifth at the venue, less than a month after his hometown Mumbai was attacked. A 160 in Hamilton in 2009 was the bedrock of a victory that led to India's first series win in NZ after 1967/68. In his final test in SA at Cape Town he scored a magnificent 146, which turned out to be his 51st and last test hundred. His epic battle with Dale Steyn was the main highlight of the series.






The Twilight (2011-2013)
After achieving his dream of winning a World Cup in 2011, he got severely buoyed down by the fans’ quest for his epic hundredth hundred. For the first time in his test career he went on with 2 consecutive years without a test 100. Age finally began to have a toll on the great man. He was the last one remaining from the Fab Four. At his home ground, Wankhade, in Mumbai he will play his 200th and last test vs West Indies and thereby become the first man in the planet to play 200 tests.


Span
Matches
Inngs
Runs
Avg
HS
NO
100
50
The Child Prodigy
1989-1992
16
25
956
41.56
148*
2
3
4
The Sole Saviour
1992-2001
66
106
5764
60.67
217
11
22
22
Fab Four
2001-2011
95
159
7972
56.94
248*
19
26
33
Twilight
2011-2013
22
38
1155
31.21
94
1
0
8


Sachin’s best years in test cricket (run wise):

Year
Matches
Inngs
Runs
Avg
Highest
NOs
100
50
2010
14
23
1562
78.10
214
3
7
5
2002
16
26
1392
55.68
193
1
4
5
1999
10
19
1088
68.00
217
3
5
4
2008
13
25
1063
48.31
154*
3
4
3
2001
10
18
1003
62.68
155
2
3
6
1997
12
17
1000
62.50
169
1
4
3


Best partnerships
Sachin has put together 6793 runs with Rahul Dravid – more than 1000 runs higher than the the next pair – which is the most runs put together by a non-opening pair. 

Best non-opening partners in test cricket

Players
Inngs
Runs
Avg
Best
100s
Sachin Tendulkar – Rahul Dravid
142
6793
49.94
249
19
Mahela Jayawardene – Kumar Sangakkara
107
5713
55.46
624
15
Matthew Hayden – Ricky Ponting
75
4753
67.90
272
16
Sachin Tendulkar – Saurav Ganguly
71
4173
61.36
281
12
Rahul Dravid – VVS Laxman
84
4035
51.73
376
12

Sachin's best 5 partners

Players
Inngs
Runs
Avg
Best
100s
Sachin Tendulkar – Rahul Dravid
142
6793
49.94
249
19
Sachin Tendulkar – Saurav Ganguly
71
4173
61.36
281
12
Sachin Tendulkar – VVS Laxman
73
3523
51.05
353
9
Sachin Tendulkar – M Azharuddin
42
2385
58.17
222
9
Sachin Tendulkar – Virender Sehwag
23
1560
67.82
336
4


The customary Sachin celebration upon reaching 100


Most Appearances
Sachin played with 600 players (110 Indian players & 490 opposition players). 212 players made their debuts in matches featuring Sachin. He is the first and only Indian to play against a father-son pair. He played against Geoff Marsh in 1992 and against his son Shaun Marsh in 2011-12. He has also played against some uncle-nephew pairs also – Javed Miandad & Faisal Iqbal, John & Doug Bracewell, Ian Bishop & Darren Bravo. He is also the only player in history to have played in 4 decades (1980s, 1990s, 2000s & 2010s). Another remarkable feat he has achieved is that he has played at least a single test with all other 94 Indian players who made their test debuts since his. Among opposition players, Ponting (29) has most test appearances with him. Among umpires who have officiated in matches Sachin played, Rudi Koertzen of SA leads the pack with 24 followed by Daryl Harper and David Shepherd with 23 each. Sachin has played under the captaincy of Mohammed Azharuddin the most (47) followed by MS Dhoni (45) and Ganguly (42). Also in Sachin’s 200th test, Shivnarine Chanderpaul will be playing his 150th for the Windies. Sachin – Chanderpaul will become the fifth pair, each with 150 or more test caps, to play in the same test after Sachin – Dravid, Sachin – Ponthing, Dravid – Ponting and Ponting – Kallis.

Most test appearances with Sachin:             

Player (India)
Tests
Players (Opposition)
Tests
Rahul Dravid
146
Ricky Ponting
29
Anil Kumble
122
Michael Clarke
19
VVS Laxman
120
Muttiah Muralitharan
19
Saurav Ganguly
103
Shivnarine Chanderpaul
17
Virender Sehwag
93
Adam Gilchrist
16


Sachin is the fourth youngest player ever to make a test debut and third youngest ever to score a test century. He is still the youngest to score a test century in England (17y 107d), Australia (18y 253 d) & South Africa (19y 216d) whereas no other batsmen have that record in more than one country.

Youngest to make test debut:

Player
Age
Team
Against
Venue
Date
Hasan Raza
14 y 227 d
Pak
Zim
Faisalabad
24 Oct 1996
Mushtaq  Mohammed
15y 124d
Pak
WI
Lahore
26 Mar 1959
Aaqib Javed
16y 189d
Pak
NZ
Wellington
10 Feb 1989
Sachin Tendulkar
16y 205d
Ind
Pak
Karachi
15 Nov 1989
Aftab Baloch
16y 221d
Pak
NZ
Dhaka
08 Nov 1969

Youngest to score test hundreds:

Player
Score
Age
Team
Against
Venue
Date
Mohammed Ashraful
114
17y 61d
Bang
SL
Colombo(SSC)
06 Sep 2001
Mushtaq  Mohammed
101
17y 78d
Pak
Ind
Delhi
08 Feb 1961
Sachin Tendulkar
119*
17y 107d
Ind
Eng
Old Trafford
09 Aug 1990
Hamilton Masakadza
119
17y 352d
Zim
WI
Harare
27 Jul 2001
Imran Nazir
131
18y 154d
Pak
WI
Bridgetown
18 May 2000


Another important fact regarding the Little Master is his sheer longevity in the game - he has played the game for 24 years which is five years more than second ranked Lala Amarnath.

Longest test career:

Player
From
To
Span
Tests
Wilfred Rhodhes (Eng)
01 Jun 1899
12 Apr 1930
30y 315d
58
Brian Close (Eng)
23 July 1949
13 Jul 1976
26y 356d
22
Frank Woolley (Eng)
09 Aug 1909
22 Aug 1934
25y 13d
64
George Headley (WI)
11 Jan 1930
21 Jan 1954
24y 10d
22
Sachin Tendulkar (Ind)
15 Nov 1989


199
For India




Lala Amarnath
15 Dec 1933
15 Dec 1952
19y 0d
24
Srinivas Venkatraghavan
27 Feb 1965
29 Sep 1983
18y 214d
57
Anil Kumble
09 Aug 1990
02 Nov 2008
18y 85d
132
Syed Mushtaq Ali
05 Jan 1934
10 Feb 1952
18y 36d
11


Generally batsmen take time to settle in while coming to a series. But not Sachin. He averages 53.17 in the first match of a series. 18 hundreds have come in the opening tests of a series.

Match
Span
Matches
Inngs
Runs
Avg
HS
NO
100
50
1st match
1989-2013
71
114
5211
53.17
248*
16
18
18
2nd match
1989-2013
63
105
5407
58.13
214
12
19
22
3rd match
1989-2013
46
78
3637
47.85
217
2
9
17
4th match
1989-2013
14
22
1077
53.85
241*
2
3
6
5th match
1989-2002
3
5
329
65.80
11
0
1
2

* Above table includes one-off test matches also

Batting – Innings wise:

Match
Span
Matches
Inngs
Runs
Avg
HS
NO
100
50
1st inngs
1989-2012
91
91
5608
65.97
241*
6
20
20
2nd inngs
1989-2013
107
105
5618
55.07
248*
3
18
25
3rd inngs
1989-2012
73
72
2996
46.81
176
8
10
15
4th inngs
1989-2013
74
60
1625
36.93
136
16
3
7


Bowlers who have dismissed Sachin the most:

England’s James Anderson has dismissed him the most – 9 times in 14 tests. Glenn McGrath, Makhaya Ntini & Pedro Collins have dismissed him for a duck twice each.

Bowler
Times dismissed

Dismissal Type
# of times
James Anderson
9

Caught
168
M Muralitharan
8

LBW
63
Glenn McGrath
6

Bowled
54
Jason Gillespie
6

Run Out
9
Allan Donald
5

Stumped
1

He is joint 8th with Mark Waugh when it comes to the no. of test wins (72) and 3rd in test losses (56) behind Chanderpaul (70) and Brian Lara (63). He has taken 115 catches in tests and is 20th on the overall list. Just like hundreds Sachin leads in the list of batsman dismissed for nineties the most with 10 (to go with 18 in ODIs). Steve Waugh and Rahul Dravid also has made 10 scores in 90s but one of Dravid's and two of Waugh's were not out.

He has taken 46 wickets in tests. The batsmen whom he have dismissed the most are Mohammed Yousuf, Herschelle Gibbs, Mohammed Rafique, Mashrafe Mortaza and Moin Khan, all of whom have been dismissed twice. However his finest hour with the ball came in second innings of the epic Eden Gardens test of 2001 when he scalped Gilchrist, Hayden & Warne in successive overs, all leg before wicket, thereby paving way for an unlikely Indian victory after following-on.

Sachin in action at Eden Gardens

Sachin captained India in 25 tests without much success. He started off on a winning note against Australia in the one-off test at Delhi in 1996 which was also the first match after India-Australia series were named after Border & Gavaskar.  However he won only 3 more tests as captain while losing out on 9 occasions. His record as a batsman during captaincy was however not up to his usual standards even thought was commendable enough.

Sachin - as captain:

Tests
Inngs
Runs
Balls
Avg
SR
100s
50s
Highest
NOs
Fours
Sixes
25
43
2054
4052
51.35
50.69
7
7
217
3
264
9


Among the grounds he has played, the ground he has enjoyed playing the most is Chepauk. He has scored most runs for a ground here. He has hit 5 hundreds here followed by 4 in SSC, Colombo and 3 each in VCA Stadium, SCG & Motera. Overall he has scored 51 hundreds in 31 grounds. In the first 5 tests at his home ground Wankhade, he scored 604 runs in 9 innings with one century & 5 fifties. Since then he has had a tough run – 243 runs in next 5 test & 9 innings with 2 fifties and a highest score of 94. However only Sunil Gavaskar has scored more runs at Wankhade than Sachin (1122 runs in 11 tests with 5 hundreds at 56.10). In fact, the ground where India lost most home tests since 2000 is Wankhade (4 losses in 7 tests).

Best Grounds (Run-wise)
Ground
Span
Matches
Inngs
Runs
Avg
HS
NOs
100
50
MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
1993-2013
10
16
970
88.18
165
5
5
2
Eden Gardens, Kolkata
1993-2013
13
21
872
45.89
176
2
2
6
M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
1994-2012
9
16
869
62.07
214
2
2
3
Wankhade Stadium, Mumbai
1993-2012
10
18
847
47.05
148
0
1
7
Sydney Cricket Ground, Australia
1992-2012
5
9
785
157.00
241*
4
3
2



One last hurray,Wankhade.14 Nov 2013



TAIL ENDER

Sachin Tendulkar once fielded as a substitute for a Pakistan XI at CCI, Brabourne Stadium for the CCI Golden Jubilee celebration match sometime in 1987-88. He shared the field with Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, rameez Raja & Mudassar Nazar. That was the first ever time he stepped into an international arena.

8 comments:

  1. Guyz...Plz a drop a comment after reading the article...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well done buddy !!! You hav got a perfect start for ur blog :)
    Came across a lot of interesting n unknown stats abt our li'l master...n it also took me back to all those wonderful memories of our dear tendlya :)
    Coming bak to ur stats...The way in which u have categorised n presented them just kept me goin....Keep it up man...Hope that you will continue enlightening us with more n more cricket facts :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Fantatic article on the Master Blaster, SACHIN with lot of stats. It seems You have taken lot of pains to collect stats and collage it in beautiful tables for easy understanding. Well done. Keep it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Deepu - nice blog, interesting and motivating facts. Expecting more.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Super Macha .. Better Late than Never .. Keep them Coming ..

    ReplyDelete