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Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar  has scored his hundreth International Century at Mirpur, Bangla Desh. He has achieved this feat in the fourth match of the Asia Cup after keeping his fans all over the world, waiting, for almost a year.

Sachin has so far scored 51 Test Centuries and 49 ODI hundreds.

After achieving this he said that he had shed “50 kilos” and said – “Enjoy the game and chase your dreams. Dreams do come true.”  He denied that he was not under any sort of pressure to achieve the hindreth international century and it was the media who hyped it.

Twitter was abug with tweets on Sachin Tendulkar’s feat and I quote some of the tweets here -

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M.S.Dhoni won the toss for Chennai Super Kings and opted to bat against Royal Challangers Bangalore at the jam-packed M.A.Chidambaram Stadium in the final of the IPL 4 match played here on Saturday. Murli Vijay and Mike Hussey opened the innings for CSK and had saved their best Cricket for the last game. They posted the finest opening partnership of 159 runs for the IPL, which enabled CSK to post a huge total of 205 runs. 

Murli Vijai

Vijay and Hussey hit sparkling half centuries en-route to the 159-run opening stand and gave Chennai a quick start which laid the foundation of the mammoth score of 205. 

CSK had reached their 50 in 5.1 overs with a six from Murli and the score-board later went on to read hundred in just 10.3 overs. The 159-run opening partnership was broken when Hussey played a lofted shot off Syed Mohammad over long-on and was caught by Mithun. 

Dhoni scored 22 runs and then lit up Chepauk with his two sixes but he and Vijay fell to S Aravind in consecutive deliveries. Vijay 95, fell just five runs short of his century while Dhoni departed in quest of quick runs. Vijay stroked four boundaries and six towering sixes in his 52-ball knock.

For RCB, Aravind and Gayle picked two wickets apiece while Syed picked one. Bravo then hit a six off the last ball to take the total to 205 runs. (more…)

History was made at Lords by Kapil Dev and his men in 1983 and repeated after 28 years at  Wankhade Stadium, Mumbai on Apr 2nd 2011, by M.S.Dhoni and company. Kumar Sangakara won the toss at Wankhade and chose to bat Sunday in the final of the World Cup 2011 against India. In the end India beat Sri Lanka by six wickets to clinch the coveted trophy.

M. S. Dhoni

It was the determined effort from Gautam Gambhir who scored 97 runs and a chanceless 91* from M.S.Dhoni which paved the way for India’s victory over Sri Lanka. This helped India overhaul the score of 274 set by Sri Lanka for India to win the title and it is the highest ever run chase in the World Cup final. 

For Sri Lanka Jayawardane scored 103* and Sangakara 48 runs.  (more…)

India’s dream of a World Cup triumph at home is one step closer after their bowlers throttled Pakistan’s batsmen to set up a 29-run victory in the semi-final in Mohali. Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat at Motera Cricket Stadium, Mohali against Pakistan in the Semi-final of the World Cup 2011 on Wednesday. 

Virender Sehwag gave India a magnificent start before Sachin Tendulkar survived a series of close calls to reach his half-century, and by the halfway mark he was the key to India posting a decent fighting total on a good batting pitch.

But that was not to be as Sehwag got out on 38 runs played with his usual gusto and Tendulkar also helped in building up the Indian innings with lady-luck sitting on his right shoulder.

Tendulkar was on 60 with Virat Kohli on 9, and India had reached 140 for 2 at the halfway point of their innings, with 300-plus total in sight. Pakistan had only them to blame for Tendulkar’s good fortune, after Misbah-ul-Haq put him down at midwicket on 27 and Younis Khan spilled a regulation chance at cover when Tendulkar had 45.  (more…)

Ricky Ponting won the toss at Motera, Ahmedabad in the quarter final  of the World Cup 2011 and elected to bat on Thursday. Ponting silenced his critics with a swash-buckling century made with grit and determination. In reply to his century Sachin made a half century and in the process completed his 18000 runs in Cricket, but it was Yuvraj Singh who ultimately matttered the most so far as the outcome of the match was concerned.

Yuvraj Singh

Despite Ponting’s century, Australia were able to score 260 runs only. R.Ashwin Harbhajan Singh did not give anything away to the opposition and Zahir Khan stuck at will.

For Indian batting, Tendulkar had made the base by his half-century required for the rest of the team to stand on but it was Yuvraj alone who stole the show. With his single handed determination India managaed to eliminate the Aussies in the quarter final. India has now  been set up with a spine-chilling encounter with Pakistan in the semi-final.

India was heading into the jaws of defeat upto the 40th over but by then Yuvraj had ensured the turn-around of things for the Indians. Suresh Raina gave him ample suppport and in the 41st over Bret Lee was bludgeoned to the fences for 14 runs. (more…)

Netherlands won the toss and elected to bat at the Feroz Shah Kotla Grounds,Delhi on Wednesday in their Gp B encounter against India. Their openers started very well and the Indian attack looked very feeble in front of their batting. They lost their first wicket after posting half a century on board, which is their highest opening wicket partnership, and were 86 for 2 at the  half-way stage.

Yuvraj Singh

India defeated Netherlands at the Feroz Shah Kotla with more than 14 overs to spare though the margin of victory couldn’t mask a lacklustre performance from the home side. The Indian bowling was just about tidy against some dour Netherlands batting, and their bunch of big hitters came unstuck for a while against the left-arm spin of Pieter Seelaar in a low-intensity match.

In the Netherlands batting, there were a couple of avoidable run-outs as well, but the dismissal that was most embarrassing for Netherlands was Alexei Kervesee’s; he swiped a long hop from Chawla, expertly picking out Harbhajan Singh at deep midwicket.

Sachin Tendulkar became the first man to reach 2000 World Cup runs with a hat-trick of boundaries in the fifth over, and Virender Sehwag backing that with three more fours in the sixth. (more…)

M.S.Dhoni won the toss and asked Ireland to bat first at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium,  Bangalore on Sunday in their encounter in the World Cup 2011.  Dhoni was proved right by Zahir Khan who took two early wickets, clean bowling Paul Sterling for a duck and got the edge of Ed Joyce for Dhoni to do the rest. The score card read a dismal 9 for 2 after 4 overs.

Yuvraj Singh

Earlier  Ireland  has successfully  chased  327 against England and this could also have prompted Dhoni’s decision to bowl first instead of setting a target.

Munaf Patel and Zaheer Khan were bowling in tandem and Dhoni’s decision of  removing Munaf Patel at that moment and asking Yusaf Pathan to bowl with the almost new ball was very surprising.

Part-time spinner Yuvraj Singh grabbed a five-wicket haul as India restricted Ireland to 207 in their Group B encounter when he rattled the Irish batting with his slow left arm bowling.

Ireland skipper William Porterfield contributed with 75 runs while Niall O’Brien, who played second fiddle to his captain in the 113-run stand, also scored 46. (more…)

Sachin Tendulkar

Zaheer Khan bowled exceptionally well and helped India snatch a point from England after a pathetic display from Indian bowlers and fielders led to team’s failure in defending a huge target of 338 as the Group B match ended in a tie at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium at Bangalore on Sunday.

Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat on Sunday in front of a packed  stadium against England in their second World Cup fixture. Sachin Tendulkar delighted the spectators there and millions watching all over the world, with his five sixes and struck his 47th ODI century. This was his 98th century in International cricket.

When Sehwag was going great guns, Sachin was suppporting him with calm and ease and almost stood there watching Sehwag score. Sehwag got 35 runs though he could have been out twice during this period. (more…)

Virender Sehwag slammed the highest score by an Indian against Bangla Desh in the inaugural match of the ICC World Cup match played at Mirpur. Bangla Desh won the toss and elected to field first keeping the dew factor in mind which might fall in the second part of the game so also that they find run chasing easier.

Sehwag started the tournament with the usual flurry of shots. He sent the first ball of the match to the long-on boundary. Shafiul offered Sehwag width again and watched the final ball speed to the cover boundary. In his second over, Shafiul erred by offering Sachin Tendulkar two deliveries on the pads: both were flicked to the boundary. 

In between those overs, Rubel Hossain had conceded two boundaries as well, and India raced to 36 after four overs. That  forced Shakib to turn to his premier spinner, Abdur Razzak, in the fifth. (more…)

India won the toss and asked South Africa to bat first who scored 250 for 9  wickets.  Rain had curtailed the match on Sunday at the Centurion and the Indians had been required to score a revised target of 268 in 46 overs.
 
If there was a fight-back by India, the lone crusader was Yusuf Pathan who launched an unparalleled assault to demonstrate that India meant business and that it shouldn’t be a cake-walk for South Africa but his knock could not provide the much needed victory to India.

Yusuf blasted a century off 68 balls and at that stage less than 50 runs were required for India to win the match and chaos was evident in the South African team. But after completing his century Yusuf gave a catch and was out much to the relief of South African team as well as the spectators.

The bowlers ran through the India’s top six in the batting order and apart from Parthiv Patel, 38 runs,  there was no one to shoulder the responsibility. (more…)