Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar - Stats while chasing

Kohli's sensational match-winning innings against Australia to help India chase down the target of 161 elevated his stature in world cricket to another level. The innings brought near-universal praise for Kohli from even his most vocal critics.

A players reputation is made in games that matter and Kohli could not have chosen a more fitting stage to play that knock - a must-win game in a global tournament against a top quality opposition. So good was Kohli's knock that it not just won over his critics, but also left his fans wondering if they knew he was THIS good.

With an overwhelming majority of cricket fans, especially Indian cricket fans, Sachin Tendulkar is the gold standard in batting.

Sure there is the great Don, but his record stands alone, and in a way so does Sachin's. While the Don holds the test average record that is never going to be matched, every other batting record worth recognition belongs to the legendary Sachin Tendulkar.

Most 100s in tests and in ODIs, most runs in Tests and in ODIs, most 100s in winning matches, most 100s in winning chases, most 100s in chases, most runs ever in chases, most runs ever in winning chases, most Man of the Match awards ... the list goes on.

His record was as good in tests as it was in ODIs. Tendulkar's record, as great as it was in India and in the sub-continent, was even better when playing away from home. Tendulkar could do it under pressure in the test match, just as easily as he could do it, under the additional pressure of scoring under the clock in ODIs, as the overs ticked by.

As stated earlier, the Don holds the record for best average in tests, but apart from that one record, almost all other Batting records worth holding belong to Sachin Tendulkar. It was widely believed that the world will never again see a batsman quite like Tendulkar.

That belief was put to the test after Kohli's knock against Australia. Is Kohli as good as Sachin Tendulkar ... is he better?

How do their numbers compare when it comes to chasing?

It’s a question that is bound to captivate nearly every cricket fan ... how can it not? However, the brutal truth is that there is no honest way to really compare the two batsmen.

When one thinks of India cricket, one thinks of Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri, and Srikkanth as being another generation of players from Ganguly and Dravid, who are thought of as being a separate generation from Kohli and Ashwin, and yet Sachin is a thread, common to all these generations.

Sachin Tendulkar is that string that connects three generations of India (and world) cricket. There cannot be a greater measure of Tendulkar's longevity in the game than this.

Virat Kohli's career is now starting to be a significant enough fraction of Sachin's. Is this really the time to be comparing their numbers? Secondly, whatever Virat's numbers and stats presently are, their overall sample size is much much smaller than Sachin's.

One must also consider the fact that Sachin played his cricket in an era where the rules were vastly different from the rules today.

When Tendulkar started playing, scores like 230 were considered daunting to chase and a score of 250 was considered as a match-winning score. In the era in which Kohli plays, sometimes even scores in excess of 300 are not even considered par.

When Tendulkar starting playing in '89 he played all his cricket up to '92 without there being any rule in place that restricted the fielding captain from placing more than two fielders outside the 30-yard circle in the powerplays.

It won't be wrong to say that there weren't any powerplays at all in the early part of Sachin's career. Kohli played a large part of his cricket from '08 - '12 when there were 20 over powerplays. How is one to compare numbers from two just distinct eras. How does one compare runs scored in an era where there were no powerplays with runs scored in an era with 20 overs of powerplays !

Additionally, Tendulkar played 16-17 years in an age where the fielding side could place up to 5 fielders outside the 30-yard circle once the initial fielding restrictions finished.

In comparison Kohli has played entirely in the era when only 4 fielders are allowed outside the 30-yard circle, thus making the task of hitting boundaries much easier.

The only brush with the Tendulkar era of fielding restrictions that Kohli has had was when last year the rules were changed to allowed 5 fielders outside the circle but only for the last 10 overs!

The aim in pointing out these differences is to highlight just how hard it is to really compare the numbers of the two batting geniuses, who played in such substantially different era and under such vastly different rules regarding fielding and fielding restrictions.

So if a comparison between Kohli and Tendulkar's stats during chases in ODIs (as SRT never played T20Is) is to be done, then these differences must be kept in mind to quantify the stats. So with this caveat lets take a look at the numbers.

There is no point in comparing the overall runs scored while chasing as it is needless to say Sachin Tendulkar is well ahead:

The first key stat worth looking at is averages when India batted second:

PLAYER	AVERAGE WHEN INDIA BATTED SECOND
Tendulkar	42.33
Kohli	61.22

Kohli very clearly has an advantage here. Tendulkar's average in ODIs is 44.83 and it drops to 42.33 when chasing. It’s thus clear that Tendulkar liked the challenge of putting a winning score on the scoreboard more than he enjoyed chasing them down.

Kohli's average of 61.22 when chasing really does stamp his fondness for chasing. Let’s now see how the averages compare during winning chases:

PLAYER	AVERAGE WHEN INDIA WON BATTING 2nd
Tendulkar	55.45
Kohli	83.97

Tendulkar's average here jumps to 55.45 from his overall average of 44.83. This shows clearly that Tendulkar was a vital contributor to those games where India won chasing during his playing days. If Tendulkar failed, then India did too during chases.

However in comparison Kohli's average just sky rockets to near Bradmanesque territory in successful chases for India. This suggests that India relies on Kohli to lead them over the line even more than it relied on Tendulkar! It’s quite a statement in itself.

What is interesting to note however is that the trike rate of the two batsmen are very similar. In all chases, Tendulkar scored his runs at a Strike Rate of 88.44 while Kohli scored his runs at a Strike Rate of 92.39.

When it comes to only successful chases Tendulkar's strike rate was 90.08, while Kohli's is 96.38. When seen in the light of the vast difference in the rules on fielding restriction during the bulk of their careers, Tendulkar's Strike Rate being so close to Kohli's is definitely to Tendulkar's credit.

PLAYER	NO. of 100s WHEN INDIA BATTED SECOND
Tendulkar	17
Kohli	15

All in all Sachin Tendulkar scored 17 hundreds when India chased targets. Needless to say, the 17 centuries scored by Sachin Tendulkar during chases is the most 100s scored by any batsmen in chases ever.

This shows that when it came to scoring hundreds under the pressure of a chase, no one was better at it than Tendulkar. However Kohli, despite having played much fewer games than Sachin, has almost caught up with the legend and lies in second place. Both Sachin and Kohli are way ahead of the #3 spot, which just goes to show their dominance in this regard.

It surely won't be long before Kohli goes past Sachin:

PLAYER	NO. of 100s WHEN INDIA WON CHASING
Tendulkar	14
Kohli	13

Tendulkar also holds the record for most 100s in successful chases, with 14 of 17 100s scored batting second, coming in winning causes. Kohli is again almost there, and all set to make this record to his own.

However, 100s are not the only individual contributions that matter during a chase. Sometimes a 50 can be just as valuable as a 100. Take Sachin's 98 vs Pakistan for instance during the 2003 World Cup. To most people that was perhaps one of Sachin's finest ever knocks during a chase.

PLAYER	50+ SCORES IN CHASES	50+ SCORES IN WINNING CHASES
Tendulkar	69	45
Kohli	37	27

Tendulkar leads Kohli comfortably when it comes to overall meaningful contributions in all chases as well as successful chases. Can Kohli break this record of Tendulkar? It remains to be seen, as Kohli not anywhere near Sachin's record yet. However, the truth is that if anyone can its Kohli.

Tendulkar has scored a total of 5490 runs in successful chases, needless to say, the most ever by any batsman. Kohli is a presently 9th on this list with 3275 runs, however, the only direction Kohli will move on this list is Up.

Ricky Ponting is second on the list with 4186 runs, and Kohli is less than 1000 runs behind Ponting. It’s almost a given that Kohli will overtake Ponting to second. However whether Kohli can go past Tendulkar on this list who is a further 1300 runs ahead of Ponting remains to be seen. One suspects though that Kohli will do it eventually.

So there you have it, a snapshot of the relevant stats and numbers for you to compare the contribution of the two batting geniuses. Does one of them have a definite advantage over the other? I will leave it up to you to make up your own minds.

However what is not in dispute is that the stats of these two geniuses while chasing are much ahead of everyone else in cricket, and as fans we can only be grateful to the two for the entertainment.