Sachin Tendulkar’s knock was slightly better, says MPCA curator
Holkar Stadium pitch curator Samandar Singh Chouhan, who called herself the ‘luckiest curator’ of the earth following Virender Sehwag ‘s scintillating double century here on Thursday, has delivered his judgement: Sachin Tendulkar’s historic 200 not out last year was slightly better than the Delhi opener’s knock…….
Chouhan, who prepared the pitches for both One-day Internationals in which the double tons were scored, considers Tendulkar’s Gwalior innings a shade better as it came against a stronger opposition, though he gave full marks to Sehwag’s world-record 219 against the West Indies ‘..
”I agree that Gwalior’s Roop Singh Stadium is a bit smaller than this Holkar Stadium. But I feel the South African team was better. Their bowling and Fielding too was better than that of West Indies aganist which Sehwag played his innings,’’ he reasoned. “Also, someone later told me that the team wanted Sachin to play the entire 50 overs in Gwalior. Irrespective of these two knocks, it’s difficult to stop both Sehwag and Sachin. if they get deliveries that could be hit,they’ll definitely smash them.”
Chouhan, a curator with the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association for 17 years, spotted another difference in the approach of Sehwag and Tendulkar vis-a-vis pitches.
After his batting stint in the nets a day before the Gwalior ODI in February last year, Sachin asked me through an person whether the main wicket too would play as well as the practice one. I told him it would perform better than that,” he recalled. Sachin guided India to 401 for three wickets in 50 overs..
But Sehwag was least troubled about the pitch, the 49-year-old curator said. “sehwag didn’t ask me anything like sachin did. He didn’t even take a look at the pitch during the practice session a day before the match….He just walked alongside the pitch on the day of the match once and went away,”he said..”But he didn’t touch the pitch or examined it closely, unlike other players. “Chouhan pointed out that people in the stadium had started talking about a possible double century the moment Sehwag reached his 15th century….
“The first time I felt a double century was possible was when he scored 100 around 20-22 overs of the 50-over match. But before I could share my feeling with anybody, one of my friends said that 200 could happen today and another boy,who was operating the manual scoreboard,climbed down and whispered the same thing in my ears,”he said.”in fact,there seemed a feeling all around the stadium that a 200 was on the cards.”The world record eventually came in the 44th over.
Courtesy : Indiatoday
