India vice-captain Rohit Sharma slashing Pakistan pacer Hasan Ali for a six over backward point in their clash at Old Trafford on Sunday had fans revisit the upper-cut played by the legendary Sachin Tendulkar off Shoaib Akhtar in Centurion in 2003. While there have been constant comparison between the two shots and who played it better, Tendulkar shared his take on the same.
Taking to Twitter, Tendulkar wrote: "We both are from INDIA and in this case, AAMCHI MUMBAI as well....So heads I win, tails you lose! (sic)"
Earlier, ICC had posed the question for the fans when it tweeted: "Sachin in 2003 or Rohit in 2019 - who did it better?"
It was an amazing display of professionalism from the Men in Blue against Pakistan in Manchester. They first scored 336/5 in their 50 overs with Rohit hitting a brilliant 113-ball 140 and the bowlers then tightened the screws on the Pakistan batsmen as the Indians won the game by 89 runs (D/L method).
Speaking after the game, skipper Virat Kohli praised both Rohit and chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav for their display. "Rohit's knock was outstanding today. He again showed today why he is such a good ODI player. Kuldeep was brilliant. Those guys were only trying to play him out. A longer spell helped in that situation and he was getting into rhythm. They were thinking that he would go out of the attack sooner rather than later.
"That ball to dismiss Babar (Azam) was just outstanding with the drift, the turn and just beating the batsman batting so well. This is the best he has been bowling since coming to England and, him confident with Chahal, is going to be an important factor for us in the tournament," he said.
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But Bhuvneshwar Kumar might have to miss the next few games as per Kohli. "Bhuvi's case looks like a niggle, a case of slipping on the footmarks. It doesn't look too serious at the moment and looks like he could recover in a couple of games from now, maximum of three games," he said.
"He is going to be an important factor for us so hopefully he can recover in time. But we have Shami with us and it shouldn't be much of a worry for us. Even Bhuvi doesn't think his niggle is too bad and that time would heal it."
--IANS
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