SACHIN V/S ZAHEER: THE MOST AWAITED BATTLE.

22nd December : As the defending Ranji champions Mumbai take on Baroda for the tittle clash, India’s new pace sensation Zaheer Khan fancies his chances against the batting mastero Sachin Tendulkar. Zaheer has a score to settle with the little master. The last time he bowled to Sachin at Pune on eve of the Dhaka visit in a practice match he received some heavy threshing from the master batsman. Zaheer has Rakesh Patel to support him with the new ball and duo can create a real terror in the opposition camp with their express pace. Rakesh Patel is soon marching on the footsteps of Zaheer Khan. He demolished the Zimbabwean batting in their tour opener at Indore. The duo are not only good at bowling together, but can do a bit with the bat too as they made Mumbai taste defeat last year with their last wicket heroics when they added 44 runs. But this time there is Sachin, playing at a venue, that opens a path to the memory lane into the years when he first picked up the cricket bat, where he hit the first six as a child, where his golden arm struck the first blow for his team with his spinning mixtures. Sachin is back to MIG Cricket Club, but this time he is no ordinary young lad playing ‘gully’ cricket. He is back to his den as the world’s best batsman. What the Mumbaikars would love is their hero hitting Zaheer to all corners of the ground, but as an Indian fan I would love to see Zaheer put up a good show against the champion leading to a fierceful battle between the two, which could be remembered for ages!

23rd December: Much to the delight of the Mumbikars, Sachin enthralled them with his awesome display of aggressive stroke making on the first day of Grand Ranji finale. In his swashbuckling knock of 108, Sachin twice smashed Zaheer Khan out of the stadium. Once Sachin was out on the crease he made the Baroda pace attack look very ordinary. His delightful innings of 108(95b,11x4,3x6) has put Mumbai into a commanding position of 8/391 on the first day. The day began with Zaheer Khan and Rakesh Patel causing all sorts of problems to the Mumabi openers with some genuine pace bowling. At one stage, with the score reading 3/51 it looked like by the end of the day Zaheer would send the entire Mumbai team back to the pavilion. But, Sachin had some different ideas to implement. He shattered Zaheer’s dream of getting him out with some impressive pulling & cutting. The spirit inculcated by Sachin inspired the lower order to provide resistance until the day ended. Ajit Agarkar held the lower order together with a responsible innings of unbeaten 69(114b,10x4). The battle between Sachin and Zaheer was completely dictated by the champion batsman. But who knows, Zaheer may reverse the results in the second innings.

Go To Page: 1 2

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic