Proving Sachin Tendulkar unlucky?

Well many a times there have been situation when Sachin Tendulkar scores a century and team India fails to emerge on the winning side which brings up the next day's headline that the star batsman is unlucky for his team whenever he scores a hundred. May be that was the reason why India beat Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the 2003 world cup when Sachin Tendulkar got out at 98 and 97 respectively. May be that was the reason why Sachin's nervous nineties happened to be lucky for India when India won that match if superstitions are to be believed.

I remember India losing the match against Pakistan in 2004 when India were chasing a target of 330 and India ended their innings at 317 with Sachin Tendulkar scoring 141. There could be many cases similar to this in his 400+ vast one day history. However, I personally don't go along with that stupid theory that a particular batsman scores a hundred and the team loses for, more runs on the board or individually, more are the chances of that particular team wining. Yesterday, India had absolutely no reasons to lose the game when at one stage they were looking forward to a total of 400+.

Though there can be some reasons for India not being able to end up victorious, absolutely no one can forgive the Indian team losing all their ten wickets in a span of 3.5 overs and with 305 runs on the board. That was the time of the innings when the batsmen had to step forward and take charge rather than losing wickets as though it was a cycle stand effect. And, if that was not enough, a total of 339 was a defendable one with strike bowlers like Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh. It is difficult to figure out what went wrong with India when neither their batting nor their bowling had to complain.

Was the England team that strong that the Indians could not withstand their blows despite being on the home side? Was Struass someone greater as a batsman compared to Sachin Tendulkar or Virender Sehwag. I can sense some weakness in the bowling department of team India which made them struggle against Bangladesh as well in the opening encounter despite scoring a total of 370 on the board. Finally, I pity England first for not being able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and second for falling by just one run from making it to the history books which would have been the most successful run chase in world cups.