Sachin Tendulkar
Sachin Tendulkar has been ruled out of the remaining three ODI series against South Africa owing to a hamstring injury that the master contracted during his innings of 24 in Johannesburg. The master played a rather slow innings in the second ODI and was later dismissed by Johan Botha.
Tendulkar did not even field during the second innings.
Tendulkar also became the most capped international player in the 50 over format of the game, equaling Sri Lankan master blaster Sanath Jayasuriya, on 15th in Johannesburg. Both the players now have played 444 matches each.
Parthiv Patel, the wicket-keeper batsman, shall be flown in to Cape Town to take Tendulkar’s place. However Sachin’s injury comes as another woe for the Indian team. Already three players which included Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Praveen Kumar had been flown out of South Africa, so that they could rehabilitate from their injuries. Now that Sachin shall be flown out of South Africa as well, the list now holds four names.
17 th of January happens to be an important day, not only for Indian cricket but also for all the Indian players, as the selectors shall be naming the 15 member squad for World Cup 2011 in Chennai.
Meanwhile India played brilliantly at the Wanderers. After a disappointing performance with the bat and failing for a second time to play the entire 50 overs India ended its innings at 190. South Africa needed 191 runs but did not start very well. Hashim Amla lost his wicket at a meager 4 runs to Munaf Patel. However Graeme Smith and Ingram played very well.
It seemed that South Africa would certainly gain a 2-0 lead in the series. But once South Africa lost Ingram the wickets fell at regular intervals.
But by the last over of the match it seemed that it would be an easy win for South Africa, who needed 4 runs off the last over with two wickets still in hand.
Munaf bowled an amazingly tight line and gave away two runs off the first five deliveries and took the wicket of Morkel as well. So it was down to the last delivery where South Africa needed two runs to win, one run to tie and one wicket in hand.
Parnell who was on strike was expected to have hit the winning shot. He tried exactly the same thing, however misplaced it as it went straight into the hands Yuvraj Singh who was at point.
The Indian team was absolutely ecstatic by this win. Let us only hope that this win sets the tone for the upcoming three matches as well as the ICC Cricket World Cup!
Tags: Cricket, India, Master Blaster, ODI Cricket, ODI Series, Parthiv Patel, Sachin Tendulkar, South Africa
