Who told Sachin Fails to fare well in the FINALS.

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Tendulkar, for long, had been carrying the cross around his neck for his perceived inability to finish off matches for India. Mind-numbing that his numbers are both in one-dayers and Tests, the maestro had been pilloried for not doing the job on big stages. A glance at the records, however, shows that the avowed view is nothing more than a myth. Few cricketers have scored as many runs as Tendulkar has in the finals and fewer have finished on the right side of the result. From the Desert Storm he scripted in Sharjah in 1998 when he pulverised the Australians to the latest century against Sri Lanka in the tri-series final on Monday, Tendulkar has left his indelible mark on some of India’s finest wins. For the statistically inclined, Monday’s was Tendulkar’s sixth ton in a tournament final and India have won all those six matches. With 1833 runs, the right-hander is also the highest run-getter in finals by some distance. After playing a stellar role in India’s maiden tri-series win in Australia early last year with scores of 117 and 91 in the best-of-three finals, it was once again the 36-year-old who won a multi-nation tournament for India. In between India lost a triangular series in Bangladesh and the Asia Cup in Pakistan and both the times Tendulkar wasn’t in the squad. Monday’s win in Lanka in a tri-series comes after the 1998 victory over the hosts, again scripted by Tendulkar (128) in the company Sourav Ganguly (109). Tendulkar’s critics often compare him to Brian Lara, highlighting the West Indian’s ability to win matches single-handedly, but the numbers suggest otherwise, at least in one-dayers. The left-hander has just one century and two half-centuries in his 17 final appearances, a poor record by the genius’ standards and certainly an unfair comparison.