To Prove a Point

A quite often repeated statement is “Whenever Sachin hits a century, India loses”. It is frustrating to hear about the person with maximum centuries in the whole wide world, who has won numerous matches for India. But still as they say in share market – it’s all about sentiments. Some stupid media wala must have said somewhere on his Breaking News. And the trend caught on. As He lets his batting do the talking, let’s have the stats do the talking here.

The details have been taken from this database at cricinfo.
Focus here is only on the fact on how many times India wins/loses if Sachin makes a century. And bit of insights on why we lost those matches.

From records, we can see that out of 42 ODI centuries that Sachin has till date, only 11 times has India lost a match. 11 out of 42. That means approx 74% times India wins. Almost 7.5 out of 10 times India wins when Sachin hits a century. A probability of 0.74 which common sense says is quite High!!
Let’s have a look at the matches which India lost when Sachin made a century.

1. ODI match 2414, 14 Sep 2006 (vs WI)- WI won by D/L when they were given a target of mere 113 in 20 overs after india made 309!!!
2. Match 2324, 6 Feb 2006 (vs Pak): India made 328. Again poor performance by bowlers. Pak won by D/L. Can’t really blame Sachin. Can we??
3. Match 2238, 12 Apr 2005 (vs Pak) – India made 315.. Pak won on the last ball. Again how on earth can you blame a batsman for half the runs in a 300 plus total. To add to it, Sachin took a wicket and had 3rd best average among 7 bowlers used.
4. Match 2114, 16 Mar 2004(vs Pak) : Chasing a massive 330 to win. Sachin made 141. Rest of the team made 139. Next highest after 141 were extras – 37. He simply ran out of partners as India were all out for 317.
5. Match 1752, 5 Oct 2001 (vs SA): Again India batted 1st and made 280. Bowlers responsibility more than the batsman.
6. Match 1658, 8 Dec 2000 (vs Zim): Again with Sachin’s knock, India made283. Bowlers let down yet again as Zimbabwe won by 1 wicket and 1 ball to spare.
7. Match 1060, 20 Oct 2000(vs SL): Comprehensively beaten by SL. India made 224, Sachin again making 50% of the runs.
8. Match 1325, 22 Apr 1998(vs Aussies): Everyone remembers this match!! That awesome match in Sharjah. Sachin given out of a No Ball. Mr Duckworth and Mr. Lewis coming in again. Aussies made 284 in 50 overs and India were asked to make 276 in 46. Sachin playing out of his skin. Even after aussies had won the match, it felt like India had!! And everyone also knows what happened in the next match. Anyways, if you want you can blame Sachin here. 3 overs remained when he got out and the rest of the team made.. guess what ?? just 8 runs in those 3 overs.
9. Match 1106, 28 Aug 1996(vs SL): Comprehensively beaten, again by Sri Lanka. A big Century by Jayasuriya. A small point to be noted: only 1 Sri Lankan wicket fell. Guess who took it!!
10. Match 1091, 5 Apr 1996 (vs Pak): A disappointing 1st innings total again. Don’t know if only Sachin can be blamed here – 50% runs being scored by him.
11. Match 1070, 2 Mar 1996 (vs SL): Sri Lanka again. Decent total in 271. A massive 137 by the master blaster.

Cricket is a team game. Whenever India loses, it is everyone’s responsibility including Sachin. And when it wins, it is everyone’s victory. That is my view but for all others who believe India will lose whenever Sachin hits a century, I really hope this settles it for once and all!!