Sunday 16 March 2014

The Superman from India - a century of centuries!!!


16 March 2012.

India playing hosts Bangladesh in an Asia Cup game at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur. Fourth ball of the 44th over, Shakib Al Hasan’s harmless leg stump dart was turned to deep square leg by Sachin Tendulkar. Renting Paul Allot’s words from St. Johns 2004 (Brian Lara’s 400th run), “Perhaps the most significant single in the history of the game” - that is perfectly apt, if not more, here. 24 international matches; 34 innings; 370 days; from Nagpur to Mirpur - it took this long for a nation’s prayer to come true and the magical hundredth hundred to arrive. Sunil Gavaskar who was doing the commentary that time said,”We are all very very lucky, very very fortunate to be able to watch this moment, not even sure whether we will ever see a moment like this in the game again”. That summed up the historical significance of the moment. In this edition of the blog I give an insight into Sachin’s 100 hundreds and how the rest of India and the world fared comparison to him.

Sachin’s milestone hundreds

1st century - 119* (189 balls, 225 mins, 17 X 4) Test vs Eng, 2nd inngs, Old Trafford, 9-14 Aug 1990
10th century - 105 (134 balls, 180 mins, 10 X 4) ODI vs WI, Jaipur, 11 Nov 1994
25th century - 139 (266 balls, 397 mins, 16 X 4) Test vs SL, 1st inngs, Colombo (SSC), 9-13 Aug 1997
50th century - 201* (281 balls, 392 mins, 27 X 4) Test vs Zimb, 1st inngs, Nagpur, 25-29 Nov 2000
75th century - 141* (148 balls, 13 X 4, 5 X 6) ODI vs WI, Kuala Lampur, 14 Sep 2006
99th century – 111 (101 balls, 184 mins, 8 X 4, 3 X 6) ODI vs SA, Nagpur, 12 Mar 2011
100th century - 114 (147 balls, 205 mins, 12 X 4, 1 X 6) ODI vs Bang, Mirpur, 16 Mar 2012

The first of many - 119* vs Eng, Old Trafford, 1990


Sachin’s 100 – split up

Split up
Span
Age
Time
Matches
Inngs
Runs
Avg
HS
50
1-25
1989-1997
24 y 111 d
7 y 268 d
209
233
9330
44.21
179
51
26-50
1997-2000
27 y 213 d
3 y 107 d
128
143
6698
51.52
217
22
51-75
2000-2006
33 y 143 d
5 y 292 d
159
190
8730
51.96
248*
40
76-100
2006-2012
38 y 327 d
5 y 183 d
156
198
9237
51.03
214
47
Post 100
2012-2013
40 y 206 d
1 y 245 d
13
19
503
27.64
81
4
Overall
1989-2013
40 y 206 d
24 y 1 d
664
782
34357
55.58
248*
164
  

TABLE I: Centuries 1 – 25 (1989-1997)


Players
Matches
Inngs
Runs
Avg
HS
100
50
Sachin

209
233
9330
44.21
179
25
51
India
57
213
1928
44517
28.21
227
53
232
ROW
588
880
19344
453390
28.10
375
561
2330

Sachin took 21 innings for his first test century & 76 innings for his first 3-figure score in ODIs but once he got there, he just got on the top gear. In next 86 ODI innings he scored 12 more 100s. During this time period his main contemporaries were Brian Lara and Mark Waugh, both scoring 21 hundreds each during the same time.  With a cut-off of 100 runs, only Lara (49.91), Martin Crowe (45.22) and Michael Bevan (44.75) averaged more in this period than Sachin. Mohd. Azharuddin (14 10s @ 41.95) and Navjot Singh Sidhu (10 100s @ 40.71) were the next placed Indians in the list of centuries. It was a time when Sachin grew from a teenage prodigy to the centre stone of Indian batting line-up while Dravid, Ganguly & Laxman still taking their baby steps in cricket.


TABLE II: Centuries 25 – 50 (1997-2000)


Players
Matches
Inngs
Runs
Avg
HS
100
50
Sachin

128
143
6698
51.52
217
25
22
India
54
155
1359
31597
28.54
217
50
152
ROW
469
575
12498
287963
27.50
334*
368
1443

Sachin scored over 1900 international runs in 7 consecutive years from 1996 to 2002. So it was no surprise that he took a mere 143 innings to go from 25 to 50 centuries i.e. a century almost every half a dozen innings. He scored 12 international 100s in the year 1998 – the record for most in any calendar year by any player. He also scored his maiden test double century in this period – 217 vs NZ at Motera. Sachin had an amazing conversion rate also during this period – 25 of his 47 score above 50 were converted to centuries. His ODI opening partner Ganguly came in second place during this period with 19 hundreds followed by 13 each from Saed Anwar and Rahul Dravid. His biggest nemesis Lara scored just 6 hundreds in the same period at a mediocre average of 36.37. The gulf between Tendulkar and the rest started growing in this period and no one caught him from here on.

The Desert Storm in 1998 - Sachin on his way to a century on his 24th birthday against Aus at Sharjah

TABLE III: Centuries 50 - 75 (2000-2006)


Players
Matches
Inngs
Runs
Avg
HS
100
50
Sachin

159
190
8730
51.96
248*
25
40
India
65
235
2320
60132
31.46
309
92
301
ROW
751
1064
23737
589005
29.60
400*
894
2862

Sachin needed 5 years & 292 days to complete the next quartet of his hundred centuries. But during this time he was way off the top with a distant joint fourth with Kallis and Gibbs. Ponting (38), Hayden (30) were ahead of him but the surprise package was Marcus Trescothick with 26 hundreds though he played 59 more innings than Sachin during the same period.


TABLE IV: Centuries 75-100 (2006-2012)


Players
Matches
Inngs
Runs
Avg
HS
100
50
Sachin

156
198
9237
51.03
214
25
47
India
59
274
2657
69792
32.04
319
106
387
ROW
904
1296
26340
619574
28.34
333
812
3097

Sachin took 198 innings to get the magical figure of 100 hundreds but it was the “last straw that broke the camel’s back”. From 99th to 100th hundred he took more than a year & 34 innings. However in the same period he was dismissed in the nervous nineties for 11 times (excluding a 96 not out), 7 of which came in the year 2007. Sachin’s last century in a win came against Australia at Bangalore in 2010 - his 95th. A whole nation prayed for their God to reach the coveted land mark which no one else has yet scaled and finally he achieved it against Bangladesh at Mirpur on 16 March 2012. It was his slowest ODI century and it came off 138 balls in what was his penultimate ODI. 

TABLE V: Overall (1989 – 2013)


Players
Matches
Inngs
Runs
Avg
HS
100
50
Sachin

664
782
34357
48.52
248*
100
164
India
154
936
9548
220829
30.89
319
332
1135
ROW
1868
4157
88866
2111402
28.50
400*
2863
10489

# The stats for India & Rest of the World (ROW) excludes Sachin’s contribution while ROW includes contribution of Indian players other than Sachin.

# Eng - Pak test at Faislabad bw 29 Nov to 03 Dec 2000 is counted in Table III.

# SA - NZ test at Hamilton from 15-17 Mar 2012 is also included in Table IV.

 
The final frontier - 100th 100 vs Bang, Mirpur, 2012
  
Other interesting facts regarding Sachin’s 100 centuries

# Sachin Tendulkar is the only player to score a century on all 5 possible results – a win (53); a loss (25); a draw (20); a tie (1) & a no result (1).

# Sachin is the first player to score a double century in ODIs – 200* vs SA, Gwalior, 2010.

# At 17 years & 107 days, Sachin scored his maiden test century against England at Old Trafford. He is the 3rd youngest to score a test century.

# Sachin is the youngest to score a test century in England (17 y & 107 d); Australia (18 y 253 d) & in SA (19 y & 26 d).

# Sachin has scored the most centuries in World Cup games (6).

# Sachin has hit 6 centuries in tournament finals whereas no one else has more than 3.


TAILENDER

It seemed as if no one would overtake the Master Blaster’s tally of 49 ODI hundreds until a kid named Virat Kohli came to the Indian blocks. Below we see a comparison of innings taken by both the Master and his pupil for scoring ODI hundreds.

Century  #
Sachin
Kohli
1
76
13
2
81
17
3
87
32
4
93
33
5
100
43
6
103
61
7
108
63
8
111
68
9
117
79
10
131
80
11
137
82
12
145
83
13
175
86
14
181
103
15
182
106
16
185
110
17
189
112
18
193
119
19
194
124



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