The Great Game Called Cricket...

Sachin Tendulkar's long list of admirers keeps on growing with world and Olympic champion sprinter Usain Bolt today saying he was one of "greatest cricketer" and he dreams of watching the Indian champion play on the cricket field.

Bolt, one of the most celebrated modern sporting icons, also said that he would one day run in India, despite the fact that had pulled out of the Commonwealth Games held in that country last year.

"For me he (Tendulkar) is one of the greatest cricketers I have seen. He has done extremely well and he is a very aggressive cricketer. I look forward to the day when I can see him play live," said the Jamaican 100m world record holder (9.58secs) about Tendulkar who opted out of India's ongoing West Indies tour to take rest.

"It would be great had he (Tendulkar) played in Jamaica (in India's first Test against West Indies). I want to see him play, that is my dream," said the triple Olympic and World Championships gold medallist.

Bolt also said that he loved the aggressive attitude of Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni during the first Test in Kingston.

"I loved to watch Dhoni, he is aggressive. Both of them (Dhoni and Tendulkar) are aggressive players," he told "Times Now".

Bolt's favourite West Indies player is swashbuckling batsman Chris Gayle, who was axed from the squad due to a stand-off with his Cricket Board.

"I want to watch Chris Gayle play. I have never met him and he is my favourite," said Bolt about his compatriot.

Asked about any chance of running in India, Bolt said, "In future I hope I can make a comeback in India as I heard there is a big fan base for me there. I like to thank them for the support and I would urge them to keep supporting me."

He said his focus now is to reach peak form during the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea from August 27 to September 4.

"I want to do my best in the World Championships and I am working for that. My focus is the World Championships and I want to be the best there."

It takes lot to bowl over Sachin Tendulkar as bowlers around the world would confess but tennis ace Roger Federer managed to do it just by his knowledge of cricket when the two legends caught up during the Wimbledon.

Tendulkar, a self-confessed Federer fan, met the winner of 16 Grand Slams at the All England Club after the world number three beat David Nalbandian to advance to the fourth round of Wimbledon.

Tendulkar chatted for an hour with the Swiss and posed with him for the shutterbugs.

"Spent an hour with Roger Federer chatting on the balcony of Wimbledon Royal box. What a humble guy! And by the way he knows a lot about cricket!!" Tendulkar later tweeted.

The two reportedly also had dinner together after Federer's match.

Federer too talked about his meeting with Tendulkar on his Facebook page.

"Today was a special day, played a good match and had the chance to catch up with the great indian cricket star Sachin Tendulkar," read the status message on his Facebook page.

In another demonstration of their improving record overseas, a weakened India eased to only their fifth Test win in the Caribbean. The resistance from West Indies was disappointingly limp at Sabina Park as they lost six of the seven remaining wickets in the morning session. Praveen Kumar, sporting a buzz cut, snapped the home side's resolve by removing both overnight batsmen, Darren Bravo and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, in the first half hour. There were some big hits from Darren Sammy and Ravi Rampaul, but they merely delayed an Indian victory.

The resolve the West Indian batsmen showed on the third evening didn't make an appearance on Thursday. The Indian bowlers weren't particularly threatening early on, regularly providing harmless leg-side deliveries. One of those broke the stand that had frustrated India for nearly two hours, with Bravo losing his leg stump after walking across to try and guide the ball to fine leg. In Praveen's next over, he had Chanderpaul chipping a catch to cover as the ball, after causing a cloud of dust on pitching, came on slower than the batsman expected.

West Indies' chances evaporated with those two strikes, and Harbhajan Singh made it worse, removing birthday boy Carlton Baugh for a duck. Sammy wasn't going to give up, though. He was struck on the forearm by a kicker from Harbhajan, which prompted him to attack. Some blacksmith-swings sent the final three deliveries of the over for leg-side sixes, with the last two flying into the second tier at least. The entertainment ended with Amit Mishra's first delivery, a tossed-up, over-pitched ball that Sammy wanted to send out of the ground but sent only as far as extra cover.

Brendan Nash, the vice-captain who has been desperately short of runs over the home summer, restricted himself to defensive nudges. When he attempted one of his first enterprising strokes, a pull off a short ball from Mishra, he was horrified to see the ball scoot through impossibly low to be trapped plumb lbw.

Ravi Rampaul gave the few fans that turned up something to cheer about with a series of swept and driven boundaries, the highlight of which was an inside-out six over extra cover off Harbhajan. Like Nash, he too was done in by a ball of unpredictable bounce, from Ishant: it took off from a length and had him gloving it to MS Dhoni, who leapt acrobatically to take a one-handed catch over his head.

The last pair kept out the final seven deliveries before lunch, and then kept India waiting for half an hour after the break. With the specialists unable to finish things off, Dhoni turned to the part-time offspin of Suresh Raina, who needed only two deliveries to bowl Bishoo and secure a 1-0 series lead.

Smart stats

India's 63-run win is their second in Jamaica and their fifth Test victory in the West Indies. The number of wins in West Indies (5) brings it level with their number of wins in Australia, England and New Zealand.
Praveen Kumar's match figures of 6 for 80 is the third-best by an Indian bowler in a Test win in West Indies. BS Chandrasekhar's 8 for 208 in the six-wicket win in Trinidad in 1976 is the best bowling performance by an Indian bowler in a win in the West Indies.
Ishant Sharma's match haul of 6 for 110 is third on the list of his best bowling performances in a match in Tests. His finest is 7 for 58 against New Zealand in Nagpur in 2010.
Among captains who have led in at least 25 Tests, MS Dhoni has the best win-loss ratio (5.00). He is followed by Steve Waugh (4.55) and Mike Brearley (4.50). Dhoni has now led in five away-Test wins bringing him joint-second on the list of Indian captains with most wins in away Tests.
The 74 runs added by West Indies for the last two wickets is the second-highest aggregate for wickets nine and ten in Tests in Jamaica. Their highest is 98 against Australia in 1990-91.

produced his best international innings since his big-stage arrival in Australia three years ago to help India chase down 226 from 92 for 6. Harbhajan Singh supported him with a seventh-wicket partnership full of sensible cricket and worth 88 runs. Rohit stayed unbeaten on 86 to outdo a similar effort from Andre Russell who blasted 92 off 64 to give West Indies a defendable target after they had been 96 for 7. With the result, India took an unassailable 3-0 lead. West Indies last won an ODI series against a Test-playing nation in April 2008.

Without doubt this was the best of India's tour so far. A day when West Indies showed remarkable fight after getting off to the worst start of the series. A day when Amit Mishra mesmerised them with old-fashioned legspin full of turn, drift, bounce, straighter ones and googlies. A day when two tails wagged to provide uncertainty and drama. A day when a young talent announced himself well and proper on the international stage. A day when a young talent who has fumbled with mediocrity played a comeback innings well and proper.

There were also collapses that didn't make for pretty viewing. At 65 for 1 West Indies lost six wickets for 31, India four for 32 from 60 for 2. There were similarities in the collapses. Both began with avoidable run-outs, West Indies' with Ramnaresh Sarwan's and India's with S Badrinath's. Both lost their bats as they tried to make their crease.

West Indies could claim the rest of their collapse was down to some special legspin bowling. During that period, Mishra took three wickets for one run. He set up Marlon Samuels with four legbreaks bowled with a scrambled seam. None of those turned big, and were defended well by Samuels. The change-up was the orthodox legbreak, which drifted, dipped, and then ripped past Samuels who had been lured out of the crease. Debutant Danza Hyatt was done in by a googly, and Lendl Simmons fell to another big legbreak that he was forced to play at.

Simmons fell short of what would have been a sixth fifty in the last seven innings. India, too, lost opener Parthiv Patel in the 40s again. The batsmen who followed played too many shots even with the asking rate under 4.5 an over, and lost their wickets. In between Virat Kohli got a bad lbw decision. Yusuf Pathan's dismissal seemed just as unfair; Simmons had no business back-pedalling from short midwicket - after having instinctively moved in to save the single - to complete an overhead catch well behind his body.

West Indies' comeback in the first half of the day was unexpected because of the way they have been squandering positions of strength. Here Russell and Carlton Baugh did the opposite. The two added 78 for the eighth wicket, but that alone would have been strictly consolation.

To make a fight out of it, West Indies would need something special. And special Russell was in the last three overs, scoring 42 off the last 14 balls he faced. The last two overs of the innings, bowled by Raina and Praveen Kumar, went for 37. Russell just kept clearing the front leg, kept hitting off the middle of the bat, and the ball kept clearing the ground. Russell walked back to an applause from his team-mates who had found a new belief.

While Russell's innings could be seen as one played from a position where he and West Indies didn't have much to lose, Rohit is one man who has it all to lose on this trip. Today he only gained. He tends to be a touch edgy at the start of all his innings, but today his start was the most fluent part of his innings. Coming in at 60 for 3, he went after Darren Sammy who had earlier been on a hat-trick, lofting him for a beautiful six and four off back-to-back deliveries.

Rohit was in a mood to boss the game, but when he saw wickets fall at the other end he went into accumulation mode. Harbhajan proved to be an ideal partner. With the asking-rate still within reach, neither man tried to hit boundaries. There were two boundary-less spells of 10 overs each in the middle of the innings. The first one was during the collapse, and was broken only when Rohit got a low full toss on the pads, moving to 38 in the 28th over.

Ten overs later, he played another beautiful punch, caressing the ball past point for four. The next three overs featured a couple of half chances, a couple of uppish shots that didn't make it to the deep fielder. That's when the game broke towards India. Harbhajan went with the flow and hit a four and a six in the 41st over. Russell, though, hadn't had his last say. Off the last ball of the over, he got Harbhajan with a slower ball.

In a deliberate ploy, Rohit then took the back seat, asking Praveen Kumar to go for the big hits in the batting Powerplay. Praveen's twirls paid off, and Rohit stayed solid at the other end. After hitting the match-winning runs, Rohit pulled out one of the stumps. It could signify a turning point in a career that many believe should have taken off long ago.

In a contest of ordinary batting line-ups, India had the extra bit of quality to successfully chase an under-par West Indies total. West Indies seemed to lack enterprise and skill to handle India's bowling, but their bowlers and fielders were spirited in the defence, dragging India down. The top order faltered after a quick start, but Rohit Sharma and captain Suresh Raina steadied India from 104 for 4.

It was a slow and low track all right, fast becoming the norm in the West Indies now, but wasn't treacherous enough to justify either West Indies' total or the struggle India went through before getting there. The only batsmen that seemed at ease were Marlon Samuels, Raina and eventually Rohit. Samuels' half-century injected some life in West Indies' limp innings after early wickets and an extra-cautious Ramnaresh Sarwan had left them crawling to 74 for 3 in 25 overs.

Raina did much the same for India with a busy effort, but it was Rohit who was the most interesting study. There were two Rohits on display. The first came out, saw Devendra Bishoo spin one across him, and started slogging at everything. That Rohit refused to work hard, and looked to slog his way out. That Rohit batted alongside Shikhar Dhawan, who scored his maiden half-century in unconvincing manner and looked liked he could get out any moment.

West Indies' brightest phase came when legspinners Bishoo and Anthony Martin kept a tight leash on the scoring, with Darren Sammy and the alert fielders providing the support cast. For 13.2 overs India didn't get a single boundary. The edginess was apparent. S Badrinath played 11 straight dots before edging Bishoo to make it 61 for 3. Rohit's ways rubbed off on Dhawan, who started trying to hit every ball for four, finding either an edge or a fielder. His wicket, through a slog sweep that gave Martin his maiden wicket, was a freight train coming.

Rohit, though, was over the self-destructive period by then. And also a critical moment in the 24th over when a close lbw shout was ruled in his favour. He played Bishoo for the turn, and the straighter one kissed his back pad before hitting the bat. And it was right in front. The umpire couldn't really be faulted for not being completely sure it had hit the pad first, but West Indies could claim that the DRS would have got them their man.

Those early hiccups negotiated, the other Rohit was the one batting in a sweat-drenched shirt, running hard, looking to convert ones into twos, scoring his first 30 runs without a boundary. Raina came in and nudged a couple of boundaries to calm things further. Rohit's first boundary was a treat: an inside-out chip for six off Sammy. He added 80 in 14.3 overs with Raina without looking hurried at all. Raina perished looking to finish the game in the batting Powerplay, and a physically struggling Rohit would have had to dig much deeper had Martin held on to a simple return catch from Yusuf Pathan at 189 for 5.

Another half-centurion in the match, Sarwan, got off to a much better start than Rohit did, but played himself into a shell, during the other critical passage of play in the game. West Indies had got off to a start similar to India's, losing two wickets after a quickish opening, but Sarwan's 63-ball stand with Kirk Edwards featured 38 dots. Praveen Kumar, Amit Mishra and Harbhajan Singh - who went for 108 in their 30 overs for five wickets - bowled well, but not least because the batsmen allowed them to. Neither of the two batsmen looked to drop and run a quick single, nor was a single fielder put under pressure. Harbhajan reaped the rewards as Edwards top-edged a straighter one.

Samuels, though, brought in the urgency, attacking Yusuf, becoming the first batsman to have a strike-rate of over 50. After a spell of 12 overs for 56, at 130 for 3, they asked for the Batting Powerplay. Forty-three came off the five-over block, but West Indies also lost Sarwan to a tickle down the leg side. The real blows came after the Powerplay as Raina snuck a short delivery through Samuels' legs, and Harbhajan did Bravo in with a doosra that dipped and kicked. The rest could add only 23 to the 191 for 6 in the 45th over, providing India with a seemingly easy chase. As it turned out, it took a dehydrated, cramping-up, and a slightly fortunate Rohit to pull it off.

During a five-over spell of poor discipline, West Indies lost the tour opener, the only Twenty20 international in Port of Spain. Led by Darren Sammy's four-wicket haul, the hosts bossed India for 15 overs on a spinners' paradise, but then they dropped a catch, took a wicket off a no-ball, bowled a lot of length, and the 72 runs they conceded in the last five overs proved to be the deciding factor. With two specialists spinners handcuffing the chase, the West Indies batsmen never really threatened India's total, although they lost only two wickets in the first 15.3 overs.

West Indies had been much more clinical for the majority of the first half of the game. Two reprieved men, though, - Rohit Sharma, dropped on 8, and S Badrinath, caught off a no-ball on 25 and not given stumped on 36 - played crucial parts in those five overs that went for 72. India's first 72 had taken more than 12 overs on a Queen's Park Oval pitch that had been under covers for most of the week because of rain. It misbehaved profusely: a few deliveries took the top surface with them, and the spinners managed disconcerting turn even without giving the ball much air. To make it worse for India, it drizzled for about the first 12 overs of the innings, but not hard enough to send the players off. There were two massive boundary-less periods: 19 balls at the start and 32 in the middle.

The way the ball turned justified India's call to play two specialist spinners, in Harbhajan Singh and R Aswhin, but West Indies inflicted damage even before spin was introduced. Their captain Sammy exploited the conditions with slower offcutters, slicing a chunk out of India's batting during an unbroken four-over spell, even as Chris Gayle watched from the stands, dressed in flashy party wear and a cap that said "captain".

Sammy's first wicket, though, was with a bouncer that cramped the debutant Shikhar Dhawan, and kissed the side of the bat on its way through to Andre Fletcher. Virat Kohli got a massive leading edge to a slower delivery, Parthiv Patel lobbed another offcutter to point, and Suresh Raina heaved to mid-on. Following that, Nurse and Bishoo stifled India, but the turning points came in the 14th and 16th overs.

First Nurse passed a maiden international wicket by failing to hold onto a simple return catch from Rohit. Then Rampaul seemed to have got rid of Badrinath, but the replays showed his front foot had landed on the line. The resultant free hit went for four, which should actually have been six because Nurse caught the ball on the full and dived on the boundary rope, and that opened the floodgates.

Rohit hit Rampaul for a six down the ground, and Badrinath hit two fours off Bishoo's next over. In between those boundaries, Badrinath was stumped, but the umpire Peter Nero refused to even refer it to the third umpire. The 18th over, bowled by Christopher Barnwell, was a disaster for West Indies even though he managed Rohit's wicket. He began with five wides and was hit for two sixes, one each by Rohit and Yusuf Pathan, in a 20-run over. Bishoo did some damage control in the 19th, but Rampaul came back to bowl length in the 20th, and was smacked for a six and a four by Harbhajan Singh.

Expectedly India wasted little time in unleashing spin after Praveen Kumar opened the defence with a maiden over. Ashwin and Harbhajan proved to be too good at the start, and Ashwin - albeit fortuitously - removed Lendl Simmons early. The man to blame was Nero again, who ruled Simmons caught behind off the thigh, and also off the wicketkeeper's helmet.

What followed involved no luck. Marlon Samuels and Darren Bravo managed to not lose their wickets but struggled to stay in touch with the asking-rate. As the ball turned and bounced, surely they would have wondered why their home pitches should test their weakness, and not the opposition's. That didn't explain lack of urgency in running between the wickets. No Indian fielder felt under pressure to charge at the ball as West Indies were not looking to convert ones into twos.

The asking-rate touched 17 for the last five overs, and the first big risks taken by the pair resulted in wickets to Harbhajan. Barnwell displayed his big-hitting capabilities in a 16-ball 34, but he was left with too much to do to prevent West Indies' first T20 defeat to India.