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By BV Swagath, posted on June 27, 2007

Whatever might be the criticism, whatever be the opinions of millions of cricket thinkers, the fact remains that Sachin Tendulkar is still one of the most precious players in the Indian team! And yes he still is at the age of 34 and having got nearly 25,000 runs at the International level. Now the reason why he still remains as an important player is because of his technique which has been the protector ever since he had made a mark at the top level some eighteen years back.

Yesterday's innings from Tendulkar at Belfast was a respectful one. There was a lesson to be learnt for every youngster. Firstly he didn't lose his cool after being stuck on 0 for 16 balls. He didn't panic like a Gautam Gambhir who wanted to release the pressure by going with a reckless shot. Most of the balls that were outside the off at short of length or good length were left alone by Tendulkar and rightly so because the ball was deviating off the track. South Africa somehow missed a trick, perhaps they missed the services of Shaun Pollock who would have kept on bowling it in the channel outside the offstump with most deliveries moving away. But the likes of Charl Langeveldt and Andrew Hall couldn't sustain their own good bowling by often feeding Tendulkar and Dravid on their pads. Tendulkar also utilized the angles very well with most of the bowlers pushing it into the right hander. So the wristy pushes to the onside were the bread earning shots for Tendulkar. The difference in this match was that Tendulkar employed the flick shot infront of the stumps only when he got settled in. In the Ireland match, he did the mistake of playing right across in the first over itself which caused his downfall.

The pace at which Tendulkar and Dravid were going along in their repair work was fair enough because the bowling wasn't all that easy and conditions not straightforward for the batsmen. Both had to work hard for each and every run. The first mission for this pair was to bat out a few overs and ensure that India weren't in a danger of getting bowled out. That would have been worst had Tendulkar and Dravid perished playing loose shots. The experience of playing more than 300 matches was shown clearly in this partnership. It's not the first time that Tendulkar and Dravid had to drop anchor when the conditions have favoured seam bowling. One such moment came against Pakistan with both these batsmen taking care of the dangerous Mohammad Asif under seaming conditions to make the task for the other batsmen easier.

The Indian team is blessed with good looking strokeplayers, but how many of them have the technique to last under ideal bowling conditions? Most people would say that it is Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid only. Both these batsmen quickly throw out the shots which would get them out when the ball is moving around. That is what they had done in their massive partnership of 158. At the start of the Indian innings especially after the loss of two early wickets, it looked as if India would struggle to get 200. But as the partnership took India to the safety zone of not getting bowled out inside the 50 overs, the attacking shots came out from Tendulkar and Dravid. It wasn't easy playing through the line on these tracks at Belfast, pacers have always got the extra bounce and the movement. So it required some innovative shots which were played and all of a sudden India threatened to get 260 with lots of batting left for the last 10 overs.

It was only a brilliant bowling performance from the Proteas that pulled India inside the 250-run mark. There were plenty of yorkers and reverse swinging deliveries that made it difficult for the Indians to accelerate towards the end. The wicket of Tendulkar fell at the wrong time. He did the mistake of going for a non existent second run and therefore had to walk back one run short of his 42nd hundred. A strike rate of 69.23 with 99 coming from 143 isn't too slow considering that it was no belter of a track. Had this innings not come, India would have found themselves in serious trouble. Instead of blaming Tendulkar for being slow, there should be a close look at the Indian bowling. They suffered because of not having a third pacer and also because Zaheer and RP Singh couldn't create the same kind of impact that the South African pacers had.

Yes, Sachin Tendulkar may not be a match winner on his own, but his value to the team is immense. His bowling is very smart and if he gets it right he is a wicket taker. Rahul Dravid for some reason didn't use his bowling which could have also been a reason for not stopping the Proteas from winning inspite of having them six down. It's easy to say Sachin Tendulkar isn't as good as he was a few years back, but the hard fact is that he still is a damn good player who contributes his part.

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