Sachin Tendulkar put up yet another smashing display with the bat at Monday’s Compaq Cup final against Sri Lanka to win India the match. Sachin scored a fantastic 138 off 133 balls to lead India towards victory.
Following Raj Singh Dungarpur’s death on Saturday, Sachin dedicated his century to the former BCCI chief. “(I) would like to dedicate this hundred to Mr Raj Singh,” said Tendulkar. Dungarpur’s death comes as a big blow for the BCCI and cricket in the country, and especially for the Indian team who have lost a great leader in Dungarpur. Sachin added, “It’s a terrible loss for us to recover from.” Raj Singh Dungarpur was 73 years of age when he closed his eyes following his prolonged illness on Saturday.
Sachin, now 36, was first introduced to international cricket at the age of 16 by Dungarpur himself, when he led the national selection panel of 1989-90 and also defied rules as the President of Cricket Club of India to allow the young talent into the dressing room at the mere age of 14 years. Sri Lanka succumbed to a 319 lead put up by India credited to Tendulkar’s 138 off 133 balls, while Harbhajan Singh maintained a 5 wicket haul to shatter the Sri Lankan batting line up. Sri Lanka lost by 46 runs to hand India with the victory cup.
Sachin’s terrific century earned him not only the Man of the Match award but also helped secure the Man of the Series title. Sachin Tendulkar has now become the player with the most number of Man of the Match and Player of the Series titles in one-day cricket the world over. Since his international debut in 1989, Tendulkar has scored a total of 16,895 runs along with 59 man of the match awards and 14 player of the series awards.
Monday’s century against Sri Lanka was Sachin’s 44th ODI hundred his 59th man of the match award. Speaking of his match winning performance, Sachin said, “This is one of my best innings. I will rate this up considering the conditions and the ground, the humidity. I think in this lot we have got match-winners and more big hitters as such and you know the guys have delivered at the crunch moment. It could be with bat or ball. But they have been delivering pretty consistently and you know they are all talented guys. You need match-winners to win consistently. That is what this team is about.”
Tendulkar also claimed that the present Indian team was undoubtedly one of the best teams he has played for, “There have been so many great names. I would not want to run anyone down by making comparisons about teams. I would like to respect the fact that I was fortunate to be part of various generations. This is definitely one of the top teams I have been part of. We have always tried to win but we have been able to produce results in the last couple of years or so. We have been able to perform pretty consistently. There are going to be upsets in between but if you look at the larger picture, we have had better days.”