Dedicated to all those who are waiting for that elusive century
Sachin Tendulkar is, undoubtedly, most compact batsman Cricket has ever seen, there is no doubt on his class and on him being legend. This article and stats are not meant to degrade Sachin Tendulkar in any way, these are just stats showing one bitter-reality of Tendulkar’s career. Centuries are scored to win the matches, you seldom see a batsman scoring century yet on losing side. Once a batsman scores century, he has high hopes of being on winning end and also Man of the Match. Number of players across the world has most-majority of their centuries in winning cause however some batsmen can’t taste the triumph even after scoring a Ton.
Quality of Centuries or Quantity of Centuries? The jinx of Tendulkar’s ton has been a myth, there is no point to say he is selfish but myth is yet to be solved that why he has such high percentage of centuries in losing cause. Out of his 48 centuries, 33 times India won, 13 times India lost, 1 time it was tied, and once the match was no-result. This means that Tendulkar’s percentage of centuries in win is 68.75 but then equation comes in mind that, out of his 33 match-winning centuries, 9 centuries are against minnows; Kenya, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Sachin Tendulkar in eye of Indian contemporaries. Lot of people say that due to India’s weak bowling attack in Tendulkar’s era, his centuries never helped India winning. Lets analyze whether this excuse is vindicated or not, we will have a look at some of Tendulkar’s contemporaries who played with same co-called weak bowling line. Remember Tendulkar’s winning percentage of centuries is 68.75. - Saurav Ganuguly: 22 ODI centuries, 18 times India won. Winning percentage of centuries is 81.81 - Virender Sehwag: 14 ODI Centuries, 13 times India won. Since 2003, his all 13 centuries have been match winning. Winning percentage of centuries is 92.85. - Yuvraj Singh: 12 ODI Centuries, 9 times India won. Winning percentage of centuries is 75.00 - MS Dhoni: 7 ODI Centuries, 6 times he was on winning-end. Winning percentage of centuries is 85.71
As MS Dhoni plays in late order so if we consider his those innings where he scored 80+, only 3 times he was on losing end and 10 times on winning end. Sachin Tendulkar’s contemporaries prove that weak-bowling is not an excuse of his low percentage of match winning centuries. Had weak bowling been a reason then Sourav Ganguly would have never scored 18 match winning centuries in same era. There is some unknown mystery behind Sachin Tendulkar’s century jinx. Sachin Tendulkar’s contemporaries from World. 1. Brian Lara: 19 ODI Centuries, 16 times West Indies won. Winning percentage of centuries is 84.21 2. Sanath Jayasuriya: 28 ODI centuries, 24 times Srilanka won. Winning percentage of centuries is 85.71 3. Saeed Anwar: 20 ODI centuries, 16 times Pakistan won. Winning percentage of centuries is 80.00 4. Mohammad Yousuf: 15 ODI centuries, 14 times Pakistan. Winning percentage of centuries is 93.33. Only his first century was in losing cause in 1998 against Australia and since then his all 14 centuries were match-winning. 5. Mahela Jaywardene: 13 ODI Centuries, 13 times he was on winning end; all match winning centuries. Winning percentage of centuries is 100 6. Nathan Astle: 16 ODI Centuries, 14 times New Zealand won. Winning percentage of centuries is 87.5 Now all the above players belong to average ODI Teams in last 20 odd years, there is no one from South Africa or Australia, yet all the batsmen maintain higher winning percentage of centuries than Sachin Tendulkar’s 68.75. This clearly suggests that “Quality is always better than Quantity”. Even Younis Khan’s all 6 ODI centuries have been match winning.
