da bet esporte： With three man of the match awards from four games in the ongoingtriangular series in Zimbabwe, Sachin Tendulkar says he is extremelykeen to “score more and more hundreds”, a statement certain to ringalarm bells for the other finalists, the West
da roleta： 05-Jul-2001With three man of the match awards from four games in the ongoingtriangular series in Zimbabwe, Sachin Tendulkar says he is extremelykeen to “score more and more hundreds”, a statement certain to ringalarm bells for the other finalists, the West Indies.”I am not easily satisfied. I want to score many more hundreds,” saidTendulkar yesterday after his unbeaten 122 shaped up India’s sixwicket win against West Indies in the last league match.Tendulkar’s 29th one-day international hundred, was his first of thesix-week tour where he has played two Tests and four ODIs besides athree-day game. The genius said he was disappointed at not getting acentury in previous games.”One always goes out to score hundreds. I wanted to score a hundred inboth the Tests. But it happens to all the players. If it was not to beso, then all the great players wouldn’t have got out in the 70 and80s. When I had embarked on this tour, I had personally decided to tryand hang around as much as possible. And that is what I was trying todo. I had told myself not to play big shots, even though that meant Iwould have to suppress my natural instinct to hit the ball. Ibasically did it because of the wickets here. I think on these kind oftracks you can’t play the way you play in India or anywhere else.”But, that the batsman does not forget defeat easily was evident whenhe recalled how the one hour on the fourth morning of the second Testcost India the match.”The tour has gone on very well so far, except for the fourth morningof the second Test. That one hour cost us the match. I thought wedidn’t play good cricket and we allowed them to get back into thegame. If we had given them 200 or 210 runs to get in the fourthinnings it would have been a different story.”India lost the second Test to Zimbabwe by four wickets after they lostseven wickets for 37 runs on the penultimate day.”I thought losing those seven wickets for 37 runs was the key. If youlose so many wickets in no time, it is very difficult to win a Testmatch. Right until that moment I felt that we were in the drivingseat. I know it is very hard to express in words as to what we shoulddo and what we shouldn’t do. It just happens,” the former skipper saidphilosophically.”The only thing one could have done was to wait and hang around therefor the new ball to wear out. Such things are going to happen. Wecan’t pin-point each other. We all need to take responsibility for itand try and ensure that we don’t repeat it.”On the brighter side, Tendulkar said the team had now some very goodyoungsters. “All the youngsters we have are very talented. They arealso hungry to do well. They are prepared to work hard and that is agood sign. It augurs well because if you look at the average age ofthe team it is around 23-24 years. The team is young and if this lotcan stick together for years to come, I am sure we can produce betterresults.”However, Tendulkar said, it was the bowling where India had profitedmost. “All the bowlers show promise. All the guys have differentqualities and that is so important when you form a team. From everyend, you have variety. Harbhajan Singh is a top class off spinner andhe is only 21. It is an added advantage to the side. Somebody who isso young and done well against quality sides, we can only expectbetter things from him.”The 28-year-old stalwart from Mumbai was also very pleased with thefitness level of the team. “It has improved by leaps and bounds. Nowwe are a very good fielding side too”.Tendulkar said he is always keen to lend a helping hand to youngstersin the team. “I know I am the senior-most among the players here. If Isee something wrong or an area where somebody can improve, I just goand tell him that this is what I feel. Then it is up to the player totake a decision. But as a senior member, I feel I should tell themwhere they are going wrong.”
