Cricket Betting: Tendulkar's 200 not out

Bat and ball / Ralph Ellis / 25 February 2010 / Leave a Comment

All of today's papers were keen to pay tribute to Tendulkar's historic achievement

"Those memories came back watching the highlights last night of Sachin Tendulkar’s sensational 200 not out for India against South Africa. It seemed the same breathless collection of beautiful, text-book cricket shots. No slogging, no big heaves, no reverse sweeps or deliberate edges over the wicket keeper. Just easy-on-the-eye perfection."

Ralph Ellis tells us how Sachin Tendulkar's 200 not out against South Africa ranked alongside other moments of cricketing history, such as Brian Lara's famous 501 for Warwickshire.

I had the good fortune to be at Edgbaston on June 6 1994. If you're not sure of your cricket history, that was the day Brian Lara scored 501, still the highest individual first class innings in cricket history.

I was supposed to have been covering the ladies' tennis tournament just across the road and the story of the day was going to be Jo Durie's preparation for Wimbledon. Instead it was about midday when my very hi-tech, housebrick mobile phone rang with the orders to get to the cricket ground because "something special is happening".

And special it was. I saw both Viv Richards and Ian Botham in the flesh in their pomp, and you were aware you were witnessing greatness. Viv would invent audacious shots, Botham would simply blast the ball from the ground with effortless power. Lara, on that day, just batted, with perfect technique, and every now and then you'd glance at the scoreboard and realised he'd put another 50 on his total. By the evening session the ground, which had started virtually empty as any Championship day between Warwickshire and Durham might do, had filled with people tumbling out from work early as word went round they could witness cricket history. It was not just a magnificent innings, but a flawless one technically.

Those memories came back watching the highlights last night of Sachin Tendulkar's sensational 200 not out for India against South Africa. It seemed the same breathless collection of beautiful, text-book cricket shots. No slogging, no big heaves, no reverse sweeps or deliberate edges over the wicket keeper. Just easy-on-the-eye perfection.

We talked to Graham Gooch a couple of months ago for Betfair's Big Interview, and he suggested that no modern cricketer could ever now join the elite group - he's a member -of 25 players who have scored 100 first class centuries. Well Tendulkar, at just 36 and after playing Test cricket for 20 years, has another opportunity - to be the first to get a century of international tons. Yesterday was his 46th One Day hundred, and he's got 47 in Tests and looks in the best form of even his incredible life. He's started playing the game only to enjoy it and the consequences are sensational.

India will be without Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag for the third ODI on Saturday, as the pair are rested. But if the contributions from the likes of MS Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik in the 2nd ODI are anyting to go by, they should be able to win even without their experienced opening pair, at odds of [2.34]. You might also fancy India to go well in the upcoming Twenty20 World Cup, which they won in its first edition. The Indians are [6.2] to win that trophy but agaian they'd have to make do without the Little Master who has retired from international Twenty20. Australia are the [4.8] favourites and South Africa [5.9]. England, incidentally, are as long as [12.0] which is also an interesting outside bet if the arrival of Craig Kieswetter really does herald an answer to the search for a dynamic one-day opener.

　
Five things you might not know about Sachin Tendulkar

1. Born in April 1973 in Mumbai, his father Ramesh was a novelist who named his son after his favourite musician

2. As a child he wanted to be a fast bowler, but turned to batting after Australian pace legend Dennis Lillee told him at a coaching clinic that he'd never be good enough.

3. Despite his lack of height - he's still only 5ft 5ins - he became a schools batting star and at 14 Sunil Gavaskar gave him a pair of his own lightweight pads. Tendulkar was wearing them when he made his first class debut aged 15 and 232 days and scored 100 not out for Bombay against Gujarat

4. Although he bats, occasionally bowls and throws in the field right-handed, he writes with his left hand

5. India's customs laws were changed in 2003 especially to allow him to bring home a Ferrari Sports car he received as a gift from the Italian racing giants without having to pay duty on it