Tendulkar rise in ICC ODI rankings

Their brilliant performance in the first couple of World Cup matches has helped Indian batsmen Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar to rise to fifth and 10th respectively in the ICC one-day rankings issued on Monday. Sehwag, who smashed 175 against Bangladesh, is up six places in the latest chart, w
hile Tendulkar, riding on his 120 against England, has risen five spots.

Indians are headed northward even in the bowling rankings with Zaheer Khan in 14th (up by nine places), Harbhajan Singh in 16th (up by four places) and Munaf Patel in 22nd (up by 11 places).
England captain Andrew Strauss, who struck a 158-run knock in yesterday's thrilling tie against India, is in 13th spot in the batting list, up by eight places.

Others who have gone up the charts are Tamim Iqbal in 23rd (up by three places), Misbah-ul-Haq in 32nd (up by 12 places), Younus Khan in 44th (up by four places) and Kevin O'Brien in 52nd (up by four places).
Australia's Shane Watson, JP Duminy of South Africa, Netherlands' Ryan ten Doeschate and South Africa's Dale Steyn have all achieved personal landmarks.

Watson has climbed four places to break into the top 10 for the first time in his career.
Duminy's has risen two places to share the 15th spot with captain Graeme Smith and West Indies' Chris Gayle while Ten Doeschate has jumped 12 places to 20th.

In the bowling list, Steyn has jumped four places to fourth position.
Batsmen losing ground are Virat Kohli in third (down by one place), Kumar Sangakkara in eighth (down by one place), Gautam Gambhir in 10th (down by one place), Jacques Kallis in 14th (down by six places) and Chris Gayle in 15th (down by five places), Ricky Ponting in 19th (down by six places).
South Africa's duo of Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers maintain the top two positions in batting chart.
Apart from Steyn, Mitchell Johnson of Australia has rocketed 12 places to fifth position after figures of 4-19 and 4-33 against Zimbabwe and New Zealand, respectively.

Also on the move are are Shahid Afridi in 11th position (up by 12 places), Shaun Tait in 29th (up by eight places), Tim Bresnan in 30th (up by 11 places) and Shoaib Akhtar in 37th (up by seven places).
England's James Anderson has taken a nosedive in the latest rankings dropping 12 places to 24th after figures of 0-72 and 1-91 against Netherlands and India, respectively.

Daniel Vettori of New Zealand continues to lead the field with South Africa's Morne Morkel in second place and Ray Price of Zimbabwe moving up one place to third position.
In the Rankings for all-rounders, Ten Doeschate has moved up four places to a career-best fifth as the top four remain unchanged with Bangladesh's Shakib-Al-Hasan leading the way.

Tendulkar scores record fifth World Cup hundred

Sachin Tendulkar on Sunday reached another milestone as he became the highest century-maker in World Cup history by scoring his fifth hundred in the prestigious event.

The 37-year-old Tendulkar reached the landmark during the group B clash against England when he glanced burly paceman Tim Bresnan for a boundary towards the fine leg region in the first ball of the 35th over. It was his 47th ODI century and his 98th overall.

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly, current Australia captain Ricky Ponting and his former teammate Mark Waugh have all scored four World Cup hundreds.

With Ganguly and Waugh retired, it is only Ponting who has a chance to match or surpass Tendulkar.

Tendulkar scored 120 runs from 115 balls and the knock was adorned with five sixes and 10 fours.

Tendulkar, playing his sixth World Cup, also holds the records for most runs and most half-centuries in the flagship event of the ICC.

He has accumulated 1944 runs in 38 matches and has scored 13 fifties so far, followed by Ponting with 1577 runs in 41 matches.

Ganguly is the only other Indian who has managed to score more than one thousand runs in World Cup matches.

He scored 1006 runs in 21 matches and stands 11th in the list of highest run scorers in World Cup.

During the course of his innings, Tendukar shared a magnificent 134-run partnership with for the second wicket with Gautam Gambhir, who scored 51 runs.

Tendulkar is all praise for his 'Fab' teammates

NEW DELHI: Sachin Tendulkar says Anil Kumble is the greatest bowler he has played with, finds Rahul Dravid's technique and concentration excellent and VVS Laxman the most wristy, while Sourav Ganguly is one who figured out his game well.

Tendulkar, who has closely seen all the four who formed the Fab Five of the Indian team not long ago, elaborated on the the style and substance of the four players.

"From the manner in which Rahul and Sourav had batted in their debut Test match, it was quite evident that they were there to stay." Tendulkar said in a book titled 'SACH,' by Gautam Bhattacharya.

"Rahul's forte was excellent technique and he loved to occupy the crease for long hours. Rahul concentrated extremely well -- I mean, still concentrates very well. Sourav was somebody who figured out his game well enough. He knew which bowler to hit and which one to defend. Sourav liked scoring runs in boundaries. He was a boundary hitter.

"Laxman depended on hand-eye coordination. He was the most wristy player. And Kumble, of course, is the greatest bowler that I have ever played with. Apart from being a champion matchwinning bowler, his greatness lay in the fact that he would bowl the last delivery of the day with the same amount of fire irrespective of his performance during the day.

Tendulkar, who has been witness to the various contraptions that came into the game, feels, the computer has been the most important as it gives the opportunity to study the opposition. He, however, insists the electronic gadget cannot substitute the "skills" of a player.

"Your performance is the biggest indicator that skill can march well ahead of the laptop! The computer does play an important role in today's cricket. You forget so many things. With the computer you can store them. For me the biggest advantage is you can study the opposition. The computer helps and provides you with that vital two to three per cent difference. As far as I am concerned it is not overrated."

Only for the Master Blaster!

While cricket fanatics hope and pray that Sachin Tendulkar's steller performance will catapult India to bring home the coveted World Cup; something that hasn't happened after Kapil Dev brought it home to us in 1983; there are those who are already planning parties in honour of the cricket legend.

TOI has learnt from reliable sources that Suniel Shetty, who will be anchoring the World Cup matches on a news channel is set to throw a gala private bash in the honour of Sachin. Highly placed sources in the cricket circuit of Mumbai reveal to us saying, "Suniel and Sachin share a good rapport and since this is going to be the last cup that the 37-year-old superstar of cricket will play in, Suniel wanted to do something special to commemorate this landmark year in cricket and for Sachin."

The top informer close to the Mumbai team also reveals, "Dates are being chalked out when this party will take place. While some feel that this should happen before Sachin takes the field as it would mark a grand welcome for him, others feel that it should be post the World Cup as everybody expects India to win and Sachin to shine."

Suniel tells TOI, "It is true that I have been approached by several channels to anchor the World Cup and I shall do it too. About the party, Sachin is like God and I'm a die-hard fan. A celebration is certainly due, but it is too early to talk about it."