Sachin Tendulkar's Unforgettable Innings

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And then..., there comes a day when Sachin Tendulkar announces his retirement from One Day International (ODI) Cricket. As an ardent Sachin Tendulkar fan, I had mixed emotions, may be, failing to express myself - whether to celebrate his golden career, or to express displeasure about his early retirement (than expected). But as I write this, taking emotions out of of mind and coming to reality with his decision, as a blogger, I thoroughly welcome his decision to retire from ODIs. He has done everything that a human being can do in ODIs.

In our lifetimes, I am sure, we will never ever be able to see another player having 49 ODI centuries, 96 ODI half centuries, 18426 ODI runs and all this with an amazing strike rate of 86.14 and an unbelievable average of 44.83! Ours is the generation, highly blessed I will say, which has seen the jersey number 10 playing one 'divine' innings after the other and we will be telling our children, grandchildren that 'yes, there was this man, I have seen him batting Live!'

Well, for that generation, which will want a glimpse of Sachin's batting, here is a list of must watch Sachin Tendulkar innings. If you have not seen these innings, may be you have not seen the real Sachin Tendulkar. If you have seen them, may be there is no doubt in your mind, why he is called 'the God of Cricket!'

A gentle advice: I recommend you to add this post to your bookmark/ share on your wall. So whenever you want to get inspired, get sheer joy and entertainment, forget your sorrows and worries, just tune in - watch these innings highlights, and get blessed!

Tendulkar's List of 100 Centuries

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Sachin Tendulkar in Traditional 'Pheta'

Sachin Tendulkar! Well, the name speaks for the man himself. As described one of Sachin's online profiles, he is "Perhaps the most complete batsman and the most worshiped cricketer in the world, Tendulkar holds just about every batting record worth owning in the game, including those for most runs and hundreds in Tests and ODIs, and most international runs." Arguably, he is the best batsman, the world has ever seen! Non- arguably he is the highest test run scorer (15470), the highest ODI run getter (18260) AND, most centuries in both the formats (51 Test + 48 ODIs = 99 International Centuries).

As I write this, there is a huge talk in media about this year in which Sachin Tendulkar is unable to score a century. And rightly so, it's been more than a year that Sachin has failed to cross 100 figure mark in an international innings. After Dravid, few people, including legendary Kapil Dev, are asking Sachin to retire. But in all the commotion, what matters is how Sachin feels about himself. And if he thinks, he is fit enough - mentally and physically, to play, then he should, rather he must. It's privilege to watch Sachin Tendulkar bat.

Now, coming to the topic, Tendulkar's  List of Centuries! Today morning, when I woke up, I suddenly felt that today is the day when Sachin will reach the 100th Ton milestone. Let's see if my hunch turns out to be correct or not. But in the meantime, let's all cherish the other 99 internaltional hundreds Sachin Tendulkar has scored so far. There is another myth which I would like to rubbish- but that is at after this list.

Rahul Dravid

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'Rahul Dravid announced his retirement today from Test Cricket.' This can be the headline in tomorrow's news. Yes, Rahul Dravid is likely to announce his retirement, says the reports. Rahul Dravid- the Wall, well, words fail to describe the greatness of this man. First, I feel very sad to post about his retirement. But then, I am glad that 'Rahul Dravid' happened in Cricket, happened in India.

Rahul Dravid- What a batting profile!

Dravid, started his career with brilliant performances in Test Cricket. Then, he was stamped as the 'only' Test Cricket batsman, later proved himself in ODI Cricket. He adapted to the situation like nobody could have. Later, he took wicket - keeping responsibility so that his team could afford to play an extra batsman! Who can make such big sacrifices for team? Navjot Singh Sidhu, once said that 'if captain asks Dravid to walk on the path full of broken glasses, for the team, he will walk that path!' Such is the greatness of the man!

Virender Sehwag Double Century

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Ever since Sehwag stared opening the innings in ODI matches, we looked at him as potentially the only Indian to score double ton in ODI for India. He did it. But it wasn't as much a surprise for me that Sehwag did it, the only surprise was that he was the second Indian (and in World too) to do it! In a way this was a much expected record from him.

Though I was lucky enough to view 'the shot' that made Sehwag's score read 201*, I was not fortunate enough to see the entire innings. Hence followed the score on the internet. There were few instances when I did not look the score for 8- 12 minutes and suddenly, Sehwag had added 15- 20 runs to his account. Such was the pace and strike rate of his innings that it was just impossible to stop him.

Below is the interesting stats of the highest individual score in an ODI innings broken and held so far.

Player	Runs	Mins	Balls	4s	6s		Team	Opposition	Ground	Match Date	ODI #
JH Edrich	82	150	119	4	0		England	v Australia	Melbourne	5 Jan 1971	ODI # 1
DL Amiss	103	161	134	9	0		England	v Australia	Manchester	24 Aug 1972	ODI # 2
RC Fredericks	105	-	122	10	1		West Indies	v England	The Oval	7 Sep 1973	ODI # 9
D Lloyd	116*	-	159	8	1		England	v Pakistan	Nottingham	31 Aug 1974	ODI # 14
GM Turner	171*	190	201	16	2		New Zealand	v East Africa	Birmingham	7 Jun 1975	ODI # 20
N Kapil Dev	175*	-	138	16	6		India	v Zimbabwe	Tunbridge Wells	18 Jun 1983	ODI # 216
IVA Richards	189*	-	170	21	5		West Indies	v England	Manchester	31 May 1984	ODI # 264
Saeed Anwar	194	206	146	22	5		Pakistan	v India	Chennai	21 May 1997	ODI # 1209
CK Coventry	194*	191	156	16	7		Zimbabwe	v Bangladesh	Bulawayo	16 Aug 2009	ODI # 2873
SR Tendulkar	200*	226	147	25	3		India	v South Africa	Gwalior	24 Feb 2010	ODI # 2962
V Sehwag	219	-	149	25	7		India	v West Indies	Indore	8 Dec 2011	ODI # 3223

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The biggest threat to the record of Sehwag is from Sehwag, himself!

Cricket Lovers’ turns 1…!

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Hurrayyyhhh…!!! What a hot and happening past one year for Cricket Lovers it’s been! It saw 200 being made in an ODI innings, IPL and Champion League entertaining cricketing communities like never before, Australia loosing to England in precious Ashes series and then counter attacking England to win ODI series, India squaring Test series against South Africans and fighting hard for the most closely contested ODI series. Pakistan rising like a phoenix to beat New Zealand just before the World Cup and now the Cup that counts- World Cup 2011..! The year saw players turning into Gods, youngsters becoming heroes, match winners getting paid like anything in IPL auctions. Well, well, well… lots of excitement. This truly is a special year for any Cricket fan. That’s why we call it Cricket Lovers’ year..!

While all those events were unfolding and getting the highest TRP rating on TV, your blog, Cricket Lovers’, was following and updating it for you on internet. To be honest, it was our first attempt of blogging. We, therefore, learnt a lot of things during last year or so. We understood the taste of readers, what they want, when they want, how they want. Started on 14^th March 2010, graph of viewers visiting blog is gradually increasing day by day.

As we write this post to Celebrate 1^st Anniversary of blog, we would like to highlight some major facts with you all.

• Total visits to blog are 4829 (See on top right corner of blog). With Indian viewers topping list with 2342 visits, No. 2 being US with 673 visits and other countries from where viewers accessed blog are-UK, Pakistan, Australia, UAE, Russia, South Africa, Sri Lanka Canada etc.
• For first few months, blog was limited only to specific group of people. But now blog has reached a stage where it top-lists certain Google Search queries. That is why Google provided various Ads of following companies on blog:
  Club Mahindra, Nokia, Quatar Airways, Tata Sky, Airtel, LG, Vodafone, Lays, American Express, HeroHonda, Mentos, cleartrip.com, hindustantimes.com etc., to name a few,
  which you can click to know more about interesting offers they make.

• One website approached us to have our writings on their website. We are in discussion with them.

Wish us Happy Anniversary...!

This wouldn't have happened unless You, had show such an intensity to visit, revisit and again revisit blog..! Rest assured for the content in blog as we will get up with something interesting every time we post to make it an enjoyable place for both readers and us. At the same time, we’re curious to know what you want to read, your feedback, suggestions, criticism related to blog, anything… well almost..! And, not to forget, encouragement also..! We will indeed give a thought to whatever you write us back.

Our goal for next year will be to continue posting quality material on blog, with consistency, to reach up to maximum new viewers keeping current viewers intact. Let’s again make the coming year of Cricket Lovers’..!

Do Visit again- Simplify- Add to bookmarks…NOW! 

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World Cup - the Number Game.

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Hello Friends,

It's a World Cup euphoria every where among cricketing fans and every one is busy in predicting their favorite teams to Win the World Cup 2011. I thought, it will be helpful for you, if you just go through what happened in the past 9 World Cups; and therefore in this article, i am presenting important achievements and statistics related to past World Cups. 

World Cup tournament is the most important cricketing event and it is world's 4th largest and most viewed sporting event. The teams and players who have performed their best in this prestigious tournament are really special ones. Team like Australia who have won the Championship four times, which is an incredible  achievement. Players like Sachin Tendulkar, Glenn McGrath, Ricky Pointing have consistently played their best cricket in this tournament which makes them greatest players of the game.

The table below provided an overview of the performances of teams over last 9 World Cups.

Golden Century on Centurion!!!!

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S  - Simply
A - Amazing
C - Cricketing
H - Hero of
I  - Indian
N - Native

Congratulations to the God of cricket on scoring 50th Ton of Test Cricket!! The milestone nobody has achieved in the past and very few might achieve in the future. ( Pointing is on 39, Kallis is on 38)

What can you say or write about this greatest of the great cricketer!