No Indian batsman dominated fast bowling as Sachin Tendulkar did: Rahul Dravid

March 15, 2014

Sachin_TendulkarMumbai, Mar 15: Former skipper Rahul Dravid has said that the batting legend Sachin Tendulkar was the first Indian to dominate the fast bowlers and had set a benchmark for the youngsters to take on the quickies.

"I think Sachin was the first great dominating batsman against fast bowling. We had a generation earlier of Sunil Gavaskar, G R Viswanath, whom we grew up idolising, and Sachin did as well. We had some great fast bowlers in 80s and 90s and Gavaskar had a phenomenal record against them. But what Sachin brought was dominance to fast bowling," Dravid said.

"Gavaskar was a slightly more defensive batsman, if I may say that, but Sachin had grown up in a different era and had someone like Viv Richards as his idol, especially when he first batted in the 90s. The way he dominated fast bowling and the way he took on fast bowling was something that was unique and different," Dravid said at the annual ESPNcricinfo awards on Friday.

"A lot of Indian batsmen were not necessarily known to do that. I think he set the benchmark for a lot of young players like Virender Sehwag."

Dravid said Tendulkar's presence in the dressing room not only served as a great inspiration to the upcoming players but drove them to work even harder to earn his respect.

"He was the kind of player whose respect you wanted to earn. I remember 'Sportstar' used to interview players and they would ask who were the cricketers of the future. We were playing the Test series in England and we were in Cambridge and somebody gave me this magazine and it had Tendulkar's interview. I quickly turned to the interview and saw cricketers of the future and he had mentioned Rahul Dravid. I felt so happy," he said.

"It was after the Lord's Test match...he did make me score 95 runs before I earned it," recalled Dravid.

"That is the kind of impact he had on you as a youngster coming into that side. Not only because he was going to be the captain and he was a senior player in the side, but because he was a great player and he

had already done so much that you wanted him to get that nod of approval. And that was a huge inspiration for a lot of cricketers in that generation," the 41-year-old said.

Dravid made his debut in 1996 when Tendulkar was already an established name, and the Karnataka batsman said, "In some ways an inspiration but quite intimidating as well. He was my captain in the third Test match that I played."

Tendulkar bagged the award for cricketer of the generation, pipping the likes of former Aussie spin legend Shane Warne and South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis here last night.

Dravid said facing Warne was a challenge due to the drift he got and it almost blind-sided a batsman.

"One of the differences in playing someone like Shane Warne was the kind of drift that he got. When he was at his best, he had the ability to drift the ball into your pads and then spin it away sharply," Dravid explained.

"That was a unique challenge which I think was quite different from the some of the other traditional leg spinners that I had grown playing up with. The drift almost blindsided you and it forced you to play on the leg side. He had great control, great variation and he had a great cricketing mind as well. When you won a contest against him, it gave you great personal satisfaction," he added.

Dravid, who played with Kallis in IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore, said the South African was shy and an introvert.

"He scored one more Test run than me in international cricket and I think he has taken five or six wickets less than Zaheer Khan. If you look at the impact the player has had for his team in international cricket, it has been phenomenal. To see someone like him be able to bowl those 20 overs and bowl at that speed, and he was pretty quick when he first started.

"I think he realised at some stage that he wouldn't be the best fast bowler South Africa had produced since re-admission into international cricket, but if he kept scoring runs and kept working on his batting,

he would probably become the best South African batsman since. Without a doubt he is their best batsman since re-admission," he said.

"His incredible ability to almost have a deadpan expression irrespective of what was going on, and people tell me Dhoni is able to have a calm demeanour and you can never tell from Dhoni's face what is happening on the cricket field. And that was true of Jacques Kallis as well."

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
January 31,2020

Wellington, Jan 31: A nervous New Zealand threw it away yet again as a perseverant India prevailed in the Super Over for the second successive time to take a 4-0 lead in the T20 International series on Friday.

Needing just 11 runs off the last two overs with seven wickets in hand, New Zealand dug a hole for themselves yet again, taking the game to a Super Over two nights after doing the same in Hamilton.

New Zealand managed 13 runs in six balls and India got there effortlessly.

KL Rahul smashed 10 runs off the first two balls before he was caught. Then, a fired-up Virat Kohli and Sanju Samson finished the game in style.

Earlier, Manish Pandey proved his value to the team with an unbeaten 50 off 35 balls, taking India to 165 for eight from 88 for six in the 12th over.

India's total wasn't enough considering the batting-friendly conditions but the hosts made life a lot tougher for themselves from a commanding position before succumbing to pressure.

The entertaining knocks from Colin Munro (64 off 47) and Time Seifert went in vain (57 off 39).

Mohammed Shami, who was rested on Friday, had bowled a brilliant 20th over on Wednesday and man of the match Shardul Thakur was up to the task this time, conceding just six runs when the opposition needed seven for victory.

With the series already in the bag, India gave opportunity to Sanju Samson, Washington Sundar and Navdeep Saini for the first time in the five-match series, resting Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja and Shami. However, none of them was able to make an impact in the game.

Chasing 165, New Zealand lost Martin Guptill early. But Munro and Seifert put on 74 runs for the second wicket to put themselves on track.

Munro scored a half-century of 38 deliveries, inclusive of six fours and three sixes. He was out against the run of play as Kohli's direct hit surprisingly found the target after a relay throw from the deep.

It was the turning point as New Zealand lost regular wickets. Yuzvendra Chahal bowled Tom Bruce (0), but Seifert found a partner in Ross Taylor as they pushed the score past 150 in the 18th over.

Seifert scored a half-century off 32 balls, including four fours and three sixes. But the great choke was yet to come again. Needing 18 off 18, the Black Caps lost four wickets in the last over bowled by Thakur.

Taylor holed out of the first ball, while Seifert was run out two balls later. Daryl Mitchell (4) was caught next and Mitchell Santner (2) couldn't steal two runs off the last ball as the sides engaged in a tie-breaker for the second game running.

This was after New Zealand won a fourth consecutive toss and opted to field. Kane Williamson didn't take part in the match owing to a shoulder niggle.

Tim Southee was the stand-in skipper, with the Black Caps making two changes.

Put in to bat, the visitors were struggling at 88-6 at one stage before Pandey's lonesome rescue act took them to a respectable total. KL Rahul contributed 39 runs off 26 balls, inclusive of three sixes and two fours.

Leg spinner Ish Sodhi got into the act and ran through India's batting order. First to go was Shreyas Iyer (1) and then Shivam Dube (12) was caught at mid-wicket.

Sodhi finished with 3-26 while Santner dismissed Sundar for nought as the New Zealand spinners rounded up a good outing with 4-54 in eight overs.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
February 13,2020

Feb 13: Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna were buried in a private funeral service in Southern California last week, multiple outlets reported late Tuesday.

Citing Kobe Bryant's death certificate, Los Angeles Fox affiliate KTTV reported the remains of the former Lakers star and his daughter were transferred to Pacific View Memorial Park and Mortuary in Corona del Mar. Kobe and Brianna were laid to rest in a private ceremony there last Friday.

According to KTTV, the death certificate cited Kobe's cause of death as "blunt trauma" sustained in a "commercial helicopter crash." It also said his death was "rapid."

Corona del Mar is a community within Newport Beach, where the Bryant family lives.

Kobe, 41, and Gianna, 13, were among nine people killed when the helicopter they were in crashed on a hillside in Calabasas, Calif., northwest of Los Angeles, on Jan. 26. Orange Coast College baseball coach John Altobelli, 56; his wife, Keri; and their daughter Alyssa, 14 -- who played on the same club basketball team as Gianna Bryant -- also were killed. Christina Mauser, a 38-year-old who was the top assistant coach of the Mamba girls basketball team, was also killed in the accident, as were Sarah Chester, 45; her daughter Payton Chester, 13; and pilot Ara Zobayan, 50.

A public memorial service for the Bryants will be held Feb. 24 at Staples Center, beginning at 10 a.m. PT.

While the date -- 2/24 -- conveniently falls between two Lakers' home games, it still could have been chosen symbolically. Gianna -- one Kobe and Vanessa' four daughters -- wore No. 2 on her basketball jersey while Kobe was No. 24 for part of his 20-year-tenure with the Lakers, and his retired jerseys -- he also wore No. 8 -- hang at Staples Center.

The Los Angeles Times reported that "entry is expected to be severely restricted" at the venue despite Staples Center's capacity of about 20,000.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
June 24,2020

New Delhi, Jun 24: Star Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan deeply regrets his "silly mistake" of not reporting a corrupt approach by an Indian bookie to the ICC, leading to his one year suspension from the game.

Shakib was banned for two years, one year of it suspended, for failing to report corrupt approaches during an IPL edition by an alleged Indian bookie named Deepak Aggarwal.

"I took the approaches too casually When I met the anti-corruption guy and told them and they knew everything. Gave them all the evidence and they knew everything that happened," Shakib told Harsha Bhogle on 'Cricbuzz in Conversation'.

"To be honest, that's the only reason I was banned for a year, otherwise I'd have been banned for five or 10 years," he added on the ICC's investigation.

The 33-year-old, who was in brilliant form before the ban, amassing 606 runs in the 2019 World Cup in the UK, said he regrets how he went about the situation.

"But I think that was a silly mistake I made. Because with my experience and the amount of international matches I've played and the amount of ICC's anti-corruption code of conduct classes I took, I shouldn't have made that decision, to be honest."

Lesson learnt, Shakib's advice to all young criceters is to never take any such message lightly.

"I regret that. No one should take such messages or calls (from bookies) lightly or leave it away. We must inform the ICC ACSU guy to be on the safe side and that's the lesson I learnt, and I think I learnt a big lesson," he added.

The all-rounder, whose ban ends on October 29, said he became a bit arrogant and never felt he was doing anything wrong by not reporting the bookie's approach immediately.

"Because you do most things right in your life, you tend to get arrogant with some decisions. You may not realise but you're doing wrong by the books. It never came to my mind that I am doing something wrong

"It was just a feeling of 'okay, what's going to happen, leave it' and I continued with my life. But that's the mistake I made. And that happens," Shakib said.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.