Former South African captain Ali Bacher praised legendary Sachin Tendulkar for his great contribution to cricket over the years and praised him for embracing the pressure to deliver goods for India’s side.
Sachin Tendulkar was widely regarded as the world’s best batsman in the world of cricket. The former Indian batting legend is one of the greatest cricketers of all time and became the only player in the history of international cricket to score a ‘century of centuries’ with 51 in Tests and 49 in ODIs.
Speaking in Hindustan Times, Ali Bacher, who played 12 Tests for South Africa in the 1960s and early 1970s, hailed Sachin Tendulkar as a player for his brilliance in World Cricket and lauded the Indian maestro for performing under pressure throughout their career.
“Actually, there are two. One is Sachin, we still communicate. I mean, he is a freak, he’s from a different planet. I’ve seen so many of his great innings but for me, it’s all about how he is as a person. Jeez, has he ever had an argument? I don’t think so”.
“He’s just this greatness, this happiness, personified. You know, the Australians believe Brian Lara was better than him, I say rubbish. I say Brian Lara played before four million people. Man, this bloke had 1.4 billion people. Can you imagine the pressure of this bloke? Don’t tell me that,” Ali Bacher said.
Sachin Tendulkar is often regarded as the best cricketer in history. He played for India for 24 years and amassed over 34,000 runs in international cricket, including 100 hundreds. He was a key figure in India’s World Cup victory in 2011 and played a pivotal role for the team over the last few years.
Virat Kohli Has Injected That Fighting Spirit – Ali Bacher
Ali Bacher believes that the present Indian team is one of the greatest to tour South Africa in recent years, adding that the team has good bowlers who can dominate any batting order. He also praised Indian batting maestro Virat Kohli for instilling a battling spirit in the team.
“This is the best Indian team I’ve seen, In Test cricket. Before, you used to have one or two good fast bowlers and that was it — Kapil Dev and maybe (Javagal) Srinath. Now you’ve got premier fast bowlers and historically, when you got good fast bowlers, you dominate”.
“You’ve got a dashing opening batsman as the captain. From day one, he is after you. And you’ve got (Virat) Kohli, the best batsman today. Kohli has made this team because I always felt that with India, there was no rubbish said on the field.
“They behaved themselves. Good boys. Not Kohli. You can see him a mile off and he reminds me of an Australian. He’s injected that fighting spirit. I’m a big admirer of his, he is the best batsman in the world today,” Ali Bacher added.
In the 1st test, Virat Kohli’s impressive batting was the only positive aspect of India’s poor batting performance against South Africa in the second innings. He was the top scorer for Team India, hitting 76 off 82 balls, including one maximum and 12 boundaries in the third innings, showing a fight for the team.
