India lost in the finals of Asia cup cricket tournament today, again... As per the statistics, India has lost in 10 finals, shared 2 & won only 1 in the last two years. But that is not the point. The point I am trying to make here is that the debate will again come up that whether Tendulkar is a match winner or is he just a run-machine.

Looking at the match, the memories of the Indian team in the late 90's came flooding to me wherein Tendulkar would always be the lone ranger fighting doggedly against opponents and the other batsmen kept falling at the other end like nine pins. Today's Indian side is much more reliable in terms of contribution from all the team members. But today that very thing was lacking. The scorecard tells a very sad story. After Tendulkar's 74 the next highest is 28 from no. 10 Zaheer Khan and that too in slog overs and 25 extras. None of the other star batsmen could cross even 20.

Tendulkar stood alone like a giant among dwarfs. Trying to win the match on his own. All he needed was a partner who could hold up the other end & just keep on taking singles. But none of the guys could do even that. Tendulkar was making batting look so easy. Ultimately he started running out of partners, overs and ultimately his patience.

India has again ended up being a bridesmaid. No idea when India will start winning tournaments with regularity. Only God knows.