Sachin vs Ponting - Rivalry revisited

Every modern sport has amazing rivalries. For example, in tennis, Roger Federer has dominated each and every player in the tennis arena except his nemesis, Rafael Nadal. Or football, wherein if Cristiano Ronaldo goes a step ahead, Lionel Messi goes one further. In cricket, there have been many batsman vs bowler rivalries. But the rivalry between Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting has been quite unique.

Ricky Ponting came into international cricket nearly 7 years after Sachin made his debut. No one then would have expected him to give Sachin’s records a thrilling chase. In his amazing career, he scored about 27,000 runs in international cricket, which is the second highest aggregate in terms of total runs. Though Sachin’s total aggregate is about 34,000 runs, the competition was much closer than expected.

Sachin, though he came to international arena at a young age of 16 in 1989, took nearly 3-4 years to get settled at the international level. Though he scored amazing centuries in Test cricket(remember Old Trafford? Perth?), his first century came only in 1994 against Australia. On the other hand, Ricky Ponting was top class from the very start. He made 96 against Sri Lanka in his debut and was unlucky to not get a century. Ever since his early playing days, he was considered as a future skipper and was finally made captain of the Test team after the retirement of Steve Waugh.

Sachin was in his prime in the years 1998-2004, whereas Ponting’s prime was from 2001 to 2007-08.

When Ricky Ponting was on song, nobody could stop him. His average during his prime in Test matches was close to 60, which is no mean achievement. Also, his captaincy skills were truly amazing. Though he was gifted with a champion team consisting of legendary cricketers, he gets the due credit for having led them to glory.

Sachin’s ODI records were untouchable, thanks to his amazing form in the shortest format of the game during 1990′s. But in Tests, he was still a learner. Statistically, when Ponting was in his prime, he was a much better batsman than Sachin at his best. By the year 2008-09, Ponting came dangerously close to breaking Sachin’s record. Only 2 centuries and 1500 odd runs separated them. But God(the omnipotent entity and not the mortal one) then decided to reward all the Indian fans. Sachin stuck a purple patch in the years 2009-2011, whereas Ponting’s form declined. This was the time in their rivalry where Sachin took a big lead against the Aussie. After that, it was more of a Kallis vs Sachin rivalry in terms of records.

As an Indian fan, I have always loved this rivalry between Sachin and Ponting. I used to celebrate whenever Sachin used to score a century and Ponting used to score a duck, and when the results were interchanged, I would be biting my nails, counting the number of centuries and runs which separated them. Both have played memorable innings against each other’s teams. While no Indian fan can forget the desert storm innings at Sharjah, every Indian wanted to forget the 140 scored by Ponting in the 2003 World Cup finals.

Now, when Mumbai Indians have bought Ricky Ponting for 400,000$, I’m happy. I am happy to see the two legends playing alongside each other. Just like Federer and Nadal playing doubles, or Messi and Ronaldo playing as the strikers for the same team. All I could say after MI bought Ricky Ponting was, “Sachin and Ponting would be playing for the same team. Now I can die in peace “.