Thursday 8 December 2011

Sehwag 200 vs Sachin 200

Virender Sehwag has become the highest scorer in one day cricket with a swashbuckling 219 against the West Indies yesterday in the 4th ODI at Indore. The double ton is only the 2nd in ODI history with the first one scored by Sehwag's idol Sachin Tendulkar 22 months back at Gwalior, just north of Indore. History was made yesterday as Sehwag toyed with the bowling and hit good balls, bad balls whatever balls all around the park. Since there have been only 2 double tons in ODI's so far and that too by 2 team mates, comparisons are obvious. But whose 200 was better? Was it the destructive Sehwag or the sublime Tendulkar?

Opponent- Sehwag scored the double ton against West Indies whose bowling attack comprised of Roach, Sammy, Narine, Rampaul, Russel and Pollard. The fielding unit was ordinary with a few spilled catches and misfields. Sachin Tendulkar scored his double against South Africa whose bowling attack had Steyn, Parnell, Kallis, Van der merwe and Duminy. The fielding unit was top class with tight fielding all the time. The difference is clear. Sehwag's innings came against a rather sultry opponent whereas Tendulkar's was against a tough bowling attack. So in this respect Tendulkar scores over Sehwag.

Strike rate - Scoring a 200 in a 50 over game involves mindboggling strike rates and boundaries. Tendulkar's 200* came in 147 balls with 25 fours and 3 sixes with a strike rate of 136. Sehwag on the other hand scored 219 off 149 balls with 25 fours and 7 sixes with strike rate of 147. Tendulkar reached the milestone in the 50th over while Sehwag was through with his 200 in the 44th over itself. That speaks volumes about Sehwag's ability to hit boundaries and the strike rate was much higher than Tendulkar's. So here its Sehwag who score over Tendulkar.

Innings Quality- Both the pitches at Gwalior and Indore were flat featherbeds for batsmen where records were meant to be broken. Sehwag's innings was like batting highlights. He was hitting every ball without any thought. His bat moved to just about every delivery. He did n't care if he mistimed a shot or he got the boundary off an edge. It was pure hitting. At 170 a very easy catch was dropped by Sammy otherwise the 200 might not have happened. But Tendulkar's innings was sublime. There was class, technique as well as a little bruteness in it. He manouvered the field, picked up gaps everywhere and beat an exceptional fielding unit all around the stadium to score runs. He played all type of shots and there was a special feel to it. It was an almost flawless innings. Sachin remained unbeaten whereas Sehwag played a tiring shot towards the end to hole out at the fence. While Sehwag scored most of his runs at backward point region, Tendulkar was more destructive in front of the wicket at the covers region. Tendulkar's 200 goes one notch higher than Sehwag's here.

Impact and damage- When Sachin reached his 200, the game was over but when Sehwag reached it in the 44th over, the traditional run scoring overs had just started. That shows the way in which Sehwag reached the double hundred. Sachin was limping towards the end while Sehwag was comfortably hitting the ball even after he had scored 200. Thats because Sehwag did n't run much and he does n't need to. He deals in boundaries. Sehwag shamelessly hit even good balls towards the fence. Sehwag was supposed to be Sammy's bunny but Sehwag hit him for a 6 off his first ball. Narine troubled Indians in the last match. Sehwag hit him for a 6 off his first ball. Such is Sehwag's impact. He doesn't turn jittery when he begins to reach a milestone.He infact reaches them with a boundary whereas Sachin does get a little slow as he begins to reach 100 or 200. Sehwag destroys the bowler and leaves him unable to bowl properly. Sachin can never have that kind of an impact ever. If Sachin makes bowlers feel that he is the boss, Sehwag makes them feel that he is the only one playing cricket. Impactwise Sehwag wins over Sachin.

So which one is better? Well a 200 is a 200 and only 2 men have scored it so both have a special place. While Sachin's innings came against a better opposition and was technically more correct. Sehwag's was brutal and much more damaging than Sachin's. Both the innings actually go on to show 2 different yet successful styles of batting. While one takes control and anchors the game, the other simply makes the opposition run for cover. At the end I would say- Sehwag 200 = Sachin 200.


29 comments:

  1. Cool comparison..... to be noted is ... the boundary in Indore was smaller than the one where Sachin scored.... this gives a confidence to slog...

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  2. you are right Vikash! But still Sachin can never slog the way sehwag does. So in a way even sehwag's double was special!

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  3. sachin scores against south africa while sehwag scores against westindies. its rather difficult to scoring 200 against south africa as their feilding is awsome.sachin scores 190 with a strike rate of more than 150 bt last 10 makes his strike little poor.atlast sachin is not out.sehwag is gout sachin is best.

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    1. For your kind info dear Ravindra, In 2010 South Africa was not at all in their peak form. Looking at the ODI rankings and total stats, Proteas had lost 70% of their ODI matches in that year. U cant compare 2 different teams during 2 different times. Sachin has his techniques, but Sehwag is also very technical at times. he has hit shots which may seem to be fluke, but were excuted with precision and unbelievable technique. For me Sehwag scores more than Sachin, any day...

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    2. never made sehwag 200 when sammy caught that catch
      but sachin never gave the chances to out and also at the time dhoni does not gave the strike to play dont compare sehwag to sachin

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  4. ravindra. the main pt. here is that even though sachin is a better batsman than sachin but sehwag destroys bowling attacks more severely than sachin. that is the reason sachin and sehwag are compared.

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  5. Sachin Tendulkar's inability to win matches for India a blot on his career.

    Sachin is the most overrated over-hyped cricketer in the world.

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    1. see sachin in 1990 to 99 he was fab without no support...............

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  6. He is unable to win matches because he is not supported ably at the other end. if someone scores runs but the bowlers cannot defend them then how can that batsman be blamed?

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  7. sehwag always do valuable runs for india, but sachin do runs for himself only. sehwag is alltime great opener in both ODI and Test international by ICC and by Critics.. write comments without partiality.....k

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    1. May be recent times it seems to be lik that but you should watch him during 1990-99 and in the view of cricket sachin is always legend..there was always pressure on sachin if he didn't score lot of persons waited to blame bt there is no such pressure over shewag

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    2. ^^^ the above comment is so FALTU. Between 90-99? When Sehwag came in 2000, and after that when he was in good form, why didn't Sachin take an advantage of that? He should played freely and much better as i Believe a person may perform better when he is out of pressure, except a few who perfom good even under pressure. So how come after 2004-2005 Sachin's records started declining? Sachin does not even have a single 300 in tests. If u call him GOD, please think more than 10 times. There are many records which Sachin doesnt have in his name.

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    3. are you remember match between india and australia at hyderabad
      australia scored over 350 sachin only played massive 175 runs for the team
      sehwag can hit the centuries only in first innings only he could not able to play pressure situations

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  8. Simply if you are watching cricket as entertainment then it will be sehwag or if you are a cricket lover/geek then it will be sachin...

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    1. wow that must have been such a great match, I wish I watched, I can just imagine what it would be to see Sehwag and Sachin in the same match

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  9. Dear Ravindra, Good Comparison.

    On the first note I would like to comment on the topic as a whole, who is better? Obviously keeping lots of facts and figures in mind, and also the valuable "run getting" quotient; I must admit that Sehwag scores 51/100 and Sachin scores 49/100 for me. It's just my views, and it may differ from person to person. Let me explain you why do I think so. -
    1) Sachin usually struggled in almost all matches against Glenn Mc Grath, whereas Sehwag ranks in top 3 batsmen in the department of hammering Australian bowlers especially Mc Grath & Brett Lee.

    2) Just recently Sehwag surpassed Sachin by scoring maximum number of sixes in the history of cricket EVER. No other player has that record till date ( and MIND U, Sehwag has only played for 13 years and achieved this feat as compared to Sachin who has played for 23 years).

    3) Sehwag has a better SR and Average in tests than Sachin. Sachin scores well in ODIs.

    4) Sehwag has 2 triple hundreds, (was on 293 and on the verge of making a world record of a 3rd triple hundred before he miscued a ball from muralidharan). Sehwag has the highest individual score in an ODI match (219), has featured in Wisden Hall of Fame2 times consecutively, a feat which not even Don Bradman could achieve! Sachin on the other hand does not have a better average on overseas pitches and does not even have a single triple hundred in tests and only one Wisden Hall of Fame award yet.

    5) We may call it Sachin's bad luck but its a proven fact that out of his 50 ODI centuries, 38 matches have either been lost or drawn. On the other hand, out of 15 centuries by Sehwag, India has won 11 matches, out of which he had 4 match winning innings where he handled the matches single handedly.

    6) Sehwag has scored more runs per ball in the bowling of Shane Warne, Glenn Mc Grath, Chaminda Vaas, Dale Steyn, Brett Lee, Sunil Narine, Ajantha Mendis, whereas Sachin has scored more runs per ball as compared to Sehwag for only 2 world class bowlers - Muralitharan and Wasim Akram.

    7) The most runs scored in an over in an ODI match for Sehwag is 28 runs (against WI when he made 219) and 20 runs by Tendulkar when he scored 200 against Proteas.


    Plus many other points to add, but keeping in mind that this is a discussion forum and bigger comments can be filtered, hence I will conclude by saying that Sehwag is a little superior than Sachin, for me. But no doubt Sachin holds many records and Sehwag holds many records too. Both are special for India and both have been legendary!!

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    1. Sachin has 49 ODI hundreds out of which 33 have resulted in Indian victories.
      Sachin';s overall test average is 53.86 while Sehwag's is not even 50. its 49.24.
      Sachin's home avaerage is 52 and away is 54.
      Sehwag's home average is 54 and away average is 44.
      Can you see the difference?
      Sehwag's average in Australia is 46 while Sachin's average in Australia is 53.
      Sehwag's average in South Africa is 25(wow) while sachin's average in south Africa is 46.
      Seriously, it is absolutely crystal clear that Sehwag has scored most of his runs at home on batting friendly conditions.
      But yes, he can destroy bowling attacks in a way that sachin and infact no one else can do.
      But sahcin is definitely a better batsman.,
      Seriously get your facts right and then comment.,

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    2. Are these the criteria to rate that a batsman is better than another. Sehwag has better strike rate than everyone in Tests. So why compare him with Sachin alone ? Does getting most runs in an over make one a better batsman. (FYI, Sachin scored 24 in an over vs NZ, in his 186*, and total 28 runs were scored off that over.).. Sehwag wud easily hav the best SR vs most of the bowlers than most of the batsmen. Does that make him better than everyone ? Afridi wud be one strong opponent for him then.

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    3. Sehwag played only 2 ODIs and 3 tests vs Shane Warne. I dont know where u get ur stats from !!.. And was Wasim Akram easier to play than the others u mentioned ?? Like Suni Narine, Brett Lee, Chaminda Vaas, Ajanta Mendis !!!!

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    4. Is hitting sixes a criteria ? Then we wud also hav Afridis, Jayasuryas, Dhonis.. Even Bradman hit less than 10 sixes in his entire international career 82 innings. So he shud be the worst batsman in history.

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    5. I am not asking u to hav some sense or logic in ur arguments. Atleast get ur statistics right.

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  10. Dude... Sachin is GOD. Sehwag is Demi-GOD. Obviously sachin

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  11. Last Year in 2012, I was in Mumbai to watch the match between Delhi & Mumbai in IPL. I have a friend in Mumbai Cric Asso. and he somehow managed to book passes for us. I although enjoyed the match seeing Delhi smashing Mumbai for a brutal 200+ score, but there was a specialty about Sehwag's innings in that match. When he took ground, I saw almost everyone in the stands were on their foot, when he smashed Malinga for boundaries and Bhajji for sixes. I asked a few people in my stand that why have u to support Sehwag? They replied - " Arre yaar, kuch bhi karo, saala ye dil jeet leta hai. Agar Sachin baap hai, to ye chacha hai. Aaj ki raat hamara support Delhi ko"..

    Obviously Delhi had sealed the fate of that match in first innings itself. But there was a thing about Sehwag which no one else has - Buddhe ko bhi jawaan kar de aur usme bhi josh bhar de. I hail from Delhi and love Sehwag a much as Sachin. But can't deny the fact that Sehwag is the only batsman who can be compared and should be compared to Sachin. Rightly said by someone above, that Sehwag achieved all this in 13 years, whereas Sachin took 23 years..

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  12. sachin was compared to bradman in 9 years..!!

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  13. Definately he was compared in 9 yrs ...becoz he is legend u cant compare anyone with sachin

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  14. guys see sachin stats in ODI winning percentage out of 49 hundreds in odi india won 33 odi's so 67% of match's india won

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