"art of finishing the game"

Blogging again after looooooooong time.. :)


So Shoaib Akhtar published a book entitled "Controversially Yours" and wrote everything that can make the book itself controversial and sell.


Amongst many claims he says Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid do not know the "art of finishing the game".


So what does "art of finishing the game" mean? The best person to answer this is Michael Bevan.




Dravid did it many times particularly under Ganguly. 


But when it comes to Tendulkar he has not. He has scored many many runs. He almost won finished the game. The word "almost" makes the huge difference.

For eg: Consider the India vs Pakistan match in Chennai, 1999. Tendulkar almost won the game by scoring 137. He was out with India needing 17 runs to win and India lost by 12 runs.


People may argue that he is an opener in one day cricket. But the point is, even in one day cricket he has almost won the game. But the "almost" made the difference and India lost. Take a look at his 175 against aussies. He did all the hard work. No one can say that it was a bad innings but he didnt finish the game.


I am not doing Tendulkar bashing here. He has scored highest runs, he is one of the best but,

Being there, scoring the runs and finishing the match is known as the "art of finishing the game".